Walmart Posts Stellar Second-quarter Results, E-commerce Sales Jump by 97%

Retail major Walmart’s E-commerce Online sales in the US saw a 97% uptick as customers relied heavily on doorstep deliveries and curbside pickups.

The company’s same-store sales jumped by 9.3% in Q2, mainly led by food and general merchandise purchases.

According to reports, it is the behemoth’s biggest earnings in 31 years. A major reason for this massive growth could be the fact that customers were cashing in on the stimulus checks offered by the US government.

Walmart’s online sales grew by $7.4 billion to $138 billion in the last three months compared to last year’s period. With COVID-19 cases increasing in certain parts of the country, there has been a “return of stock-up behavior,” according to Doug McMillion, CEO of Walmart. Doug also noted that the retailer’s food business had surged because consumers were cooking more at home rather than going to restaurants. Also, the sale of disinfectants and cleaning supplies had also gone up.

Walmart is planning to further build on these promising signs by adding their Walmart+ membership, but no further details like launch date, perks, etc. were announced during the investor call. Doug said that the potential Amazon Prime competitor program would help speed up deliveries, build trust, and collect data.

Walmart said that customers shop for a wide array of products, from groceries, fishing poles, and bicycles to TVs across both online and physical stores. The other interesting trend was that customers shopped less frequently but bought more. The average ticket size increased by 27% in Q2 as the number of transactions fell by 14%.

While all seems to be going well for the Bentonville-based retail major, the challenge was managing the supply chain for high-demand products.

On the international front, things are now starting to look up for the company. Government-mandated lockdowns had led to a slight dent in sales.

In India, the lockdown had affected sales in the first half of the second quarter, but thanks to the lifting of restrictions, Walmart-owned Flipkart’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) or gross sales has surpassed pre-COVID-19 numbers. Flipkart’s recent shopping festival Big Saving Days, was a success.

Walmart isn’t the only company rejoicing. Home improvement retailer Home Depot also posted a splendid Q2 result with a 23% increase in quarterly sales. The retailer saw double-digit growth across important metrics like an increase in customer transactions, average ticket size, and sales per retail square foot.

Clearly, customers have been busy redoing their homes, building furniture, and painting homes amidst the pandemic.

Managing supply chain and logistics is of utmost importance right now for companies. With customer satisfaction being the ultimate differentiator, brands have to ensure effective route optimization, smart delivery assignment, and territory-based planning, among other requirements, to increase their delivery speed and efficiency, ultimately resulting in customer loyalty.

Locus offers the best logistics optimization solutions to enterprises in the E-commerce space. Get in touch with us for a demo.