Wal-Mart

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Wal-Mart Expects Online Sales to Surge 40%

By Matthew Boyle
October 10, 2017, 7:45 PM GMT+8 Updated on October 10, 2017, 11:25 PM GMT+8

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expects U.S. e-commerce sales to surge 40 percent in the next fiscal year as its online investments allow the retail giant to play catch-up with Amazon.com Inc.

The company also plans to add 1,000 online-grocery locations -- roughly double the current number of sites, which help fill orders from customers buying their food on Walmart.com. Total sales, meanwhile, are expected to grow at or above 3 percent, the retailer said as part of a forecast issued ahead of its shareholder meeting on Tuesday.

The upbeat guidance triggered Wal-Mart’s biggest rally in more than a year, lending evidence to the view that its company-changing bet on e-commerce is beginning to pay off. Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon has channeled more than one-third of the business’s capital spending budget into digital initiatives -- like specialized e-commerce distribution centers -- up from just 20 percent a few years ago.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...ses-amazon

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Walmart Is Close to $12 Billion-Plus Deal for Flipkart

By Saritha Rai
April 23, 2018, 12:45 PM GMT+8 Updated on April 23, 2018, 1:44 PM GMT+8

Walmart Inc. is close to finalizing a deal to buy a majority stake in India’s leading e-commerce company for at least $12 billion and may complete the agreement in the next two weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.

All the major investors in Flipkart Online Services Pvt are now on board with the Walmart purchase, after an earlier debate over an Amazon.com Inc. acquisition, said the people, asking not to be named because the matter is private. Tiger Global Management will sell nearly all its 20 percent stake in Flipkart, while SoftBank Group Corp. will offload a substantial part of its 20 percent-plus holding, the people said. Walmart will likely end up with 60 percent to 80 percent of Flipkart, valued at about $20 billion, they said.

Among the issues still to be resolved are whether Flipkart’s founders will lead the business after the purchase, how much each existing investor sells and what Walmart’s final stake will be. It’s also possible that terms will change or the talks will fall apart.

More details in https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...r-flipkart

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Meet the family worth more than Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett or Bill Gates

Zameena Mejia
May 16, 2018

The Walton family, founders of the world's largest company by revenue, Walmart, officially tops the latest Sunday Times Rich List, the paper's ranking of the wealthiest 100 people in the world.

The U.K.-based newspaper reports that the American family has a collective net worth of £128.9 billion (nearly $175 billion) in its 30th annual list published on Sunday, May 13. Brothers Charles and David Koch, worth £88.9 billion ($120 billion), place second.

Although Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos comes in third, he's still the world's single richest person with a net worth of £83 billion ($112 billion). Two other individuals round out the top five: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, worth £66.7 billion ($90 billion) and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, worth £62.2 billion ($84 billion).

More details in https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/15/the-walt...gates.html

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Walmart shares soar 8% as earnings top expectations, boosted by 40% US e-commerce sales growth

Lauren Thomas & Courtney Reagan
August 16, 2018

Walmart on Thursday reported quarterly earnings and sales that topped analysts' expectations, as more shoppers flocked to its stores and spent more per trip, and e-commerce sales ticked higher than previous quarters.

The retailer said it had the strongest same-store sales growth in more than a decade, thanks to robust sales in its grocery and apparel departments, both of which Walmart has poured money into to compete with the likes of Amazon and Kroger.

A sign that changes like a new website redesign and grocery delivery options are paying off, Walmart said U.S. online sales climbed 40 percent during the quarter, and the company is still anticipating an increase of 40 percent for the full year. In prior quarters, Walmart's digital sales growth had moderated somewhat from a 50 percent jump logged in the third quarter of last year.

Walmart also raised its sales and earnings outlook for the full year, excluding any impact from its acquisition of Indian e-commerce company Flipkart, which is still in the process of closing.

"We're pleased with how customers are responding to the way we're leveraging stores and e-commerce to make shopping faster and more convenient," CEO Doug McMillon said in a statement.

Walmart shares climbed more than 7 percent in premarket trading on the news.

Here's what the company reported compared with what analysts were expecting, based on a survey by Thomson Reuters:

* Earnings per share: $1.29 vs. $1.22 expected
* Revenue: $128.03 billion vs. $125.97 billion expected
* Same-store sales in the U.S.: an increase of 4.5 percent vs. an increase of 2.4 percent expected

More details in https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/16/walmart-...-2018.html

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Walmart is expanding its 'unlimited' grocery delivery service nationwide
* Walmart is set to expand an unlimited grocery delivery service.
* Users can pay $98 per year to receive unlimited grocery deliveries to their homes.
* Walmart says it plans to reach more than 50% of the country with this service by the end of the year.

Lauren Thomas
PUBLISHED 12 September 2019

Walmart said Thursday it will be expanding a new "unlimited" grocery delivery service, which costs users $98 annually, to 1,400 stores this fall.

The biggest retailer in the world had earlier this year been testing what it calls Delivery Unlimited in four markets — Houston, Miami, Salt Lake City and Tampa. As part of the nationwide rollout, it said the service will be available in 200 metro areas where it already has regular grocery delivery, reaching more than 50% of the U.S. population, by the end of the year.

Walmart's Delivery Unlimited gives shoppers the option to pay either $98 per year or $12.95 per month to receive unlimited grocery delivery orders to their homes. Typically, on an order-by-order basis, delivery would cost an additional $9.99. In addition to fresh produce, meat and bakery items, some general merchandise is offered under the new unlimited service, the company said.

"We've been investing in our online grocery business by quickly expanding our Grocery Pickup and Delivery services. Delivery Unlimited is the next step in that journey," Tom Ward, senior vice president of Walmart's digital operations in the U.S., said in a statement. "By pairing our size and scale and these services we're making Walmart the easiest place to shop."

Walmart said it has more than 45,000 personal shoppers helping it pack grocery orders for customers every day. It says these people must complete three weeks of training before they can begin that work.

This nationwide rollout builds on a strong grocery business that Walmart has already been amassing in the U.S. It has an online grocery order pickup option, for example, available at nearly 3,000 stores today.

More details in https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/12/walmart-...nwide.html

[weijian]

Once you acknowledge you have a problem and been critical about it, you are probably half way to success I suppose.

How about Walmart buying over Instacart?

A leaked Walmart memo highlights the daunting challenges facing the world’s largest retailer

The document makes blunt assessments about the uphill battle to overcome competitors like Amazon, Target, and Instacart......

Amazon, of course, is not the only threat mentioned. The memo also reveals a shrinking lead for Walmart over Instacart, the online grocery company whose contractors shop for orders at partner grocery chain stores and deliver them to customer doors that same day. An enclosed chart shows Walmart owning almost a 40 percent share of the online pickup and delivery grocery market prior to the pandemic, compared to just around 20 percent for Instacart. But the graphic shows Walmart’s share shrinking to 31 percent by February of this year, and Instacart nipping at its heels with about 30 percent share

https://www.vox.com/recode/22423706/walm...-instacart