Walmart CEO Likes 'Traction' of His E-Commerce Business, Sees 'Organic' Growth

Walmart is “moving faster to combine our digital and physical assets to make shopping easier and more enjoyable for customers, but we can also see plenty of room to improve,” including the “need to scale our e-commerce business further,” CEO Doug McMillon said on a Thursday earnings call. Walmart likes the “traction” in its U.S. e-commerce business, “and we’re working hard to make even more improvements,” said McMillon. For example, under a recent policy change, consumers who order more than $35 worth of merchandise no longer are required to pay a membership fee to qualify for free two-day shipping “on millions of items,” he said. Walmart also recently began offering customers “pick-up discounts on non-store items,” he said. “Our stores are located within 10 miles of nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population, so this is convenient for many of our customers, and also saves them money when they order online and pick it up during their visit to our stores.” He estimated Walmart.com now has 50 million first- and third-party items to choose from compared with only 10 million a year ago, “so our assortment continues to ramp.” Walmart also recently made “a few small, but strategic e-commerce acquisitions” to bolster its online product assortment, “but our plan in e-commerce is not to buy our way to success,” he said. “The majority of our growth is and will be organic.” The initiatives helped Walmart boost its Q1 e-commerce sales by 69 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said on the call.