- Walmart's US e-commerce sales grew 27% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2023.
- It's the biggest increase the retail giant has seen since the first quarter of 2021.
Walmart appears to be recapturing some of the online sales magic that sent its e-commerce revenues soaring at the height of the pandemic.
The retail giant reported Thursday that US e-commerce sales rose 27% year-over-year in the first quarter — its highest pace of growth since the first quarter of 2021, when they surged 37%.
Walmart has been heavily pushing its e-commerce business recently, from redesigning its app and website to trying to grow its number of third-party marketplace sellers to pushing membership program Walmart+, the company's response to rival Amazon Prime.
Throughout 2020, Walmart US e-commerce sales soared, as customers hunkered down at home and bought more groceries and general merchandise on walmart.com and through the Walmart app. For the second quarter of 2020, Walmart reported 97% year-over-year e-commerce growth.
The following years, Walmart e-commerce growth naturally dropped as more shoppers returned to stores. But Walmart has continued to push its e-commerce offerings, and company leaders said on an earnings call Thursday that the strong online sales numbers were led by popularity of pickup and delivery.
"We have an advantage here as we leverage the proximity of our stores to fulfill and deliver digital orders to customers," Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said during an earnings call with analysts. As Walmart loves to tout, due to its presence of 4,600 stores across the United States, 90% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Walmart store.
Here's a breakdown of Walmart's year-over-year US e-commerce sales growth for the last nine quarters:
- Q1 2021: 37%
- Q2 2021: 6%
- Q3 2021: 8%
- Q4 2021: 1%
- Q1 2022: 1%
- Q2 2022: 12%
- Q3 2022: 16%
- Q4 2022: 17%
- Q1 2023: 27%
Walmart's e-commerce growth contributed to a strong quarter for the company overall, which saw revenue grow by 7.6% compared to the year prior.
What do you think of Walmart's e-commerce operations? Contact reporter Ben Tobin on email at btobin@insider.com.