It's Time to Accept That Walmart Is an E-Commerce Company
*By Carlo Versano*
When will we start thinking of Walmart as the e-commerce giant that it is?
The world's largest retailer beat its earnings expectations Thursday, in part due to the strength of its online sales, which grew 43 percent in the quarter. By the end of the year, Walmart's ($WMT) e-commerce sales will account for 4 percent of all U.S. online retail spending, according to a [new report](https://retail.emarketer.com/article/walmart-overtakes-apple-no-3-e-tailer-us/5bec6a2cb979f109c0bb101a?ecid=NL1014) from eMarketer. That will make it bigger than Apple ($AAPL)ー at least in terms of its share of the e-commerce pie, behind only eBay ($EBAY) and, of course, Amazon ($AMZN).
"It's the strongest number we've seen this year," said Jharonne Martis, director of consumer research at Refinitiv, referring to Walmart's e-commerce growth.
A couple years ago, Walmart retrenched and decided to pin its acquisition strategy on up-and-coming, high-end, direct-to-consumer brands that already resonated with millennials who were not part of Walmart's core customer base. It snatched up Bonobos, the hip men's clothier, Jet.com, an Amazon-esque online general store, Eloquii, a plus-size women's brand, Bare Necessities, a lingerie start-up, and Moosejaw, an outdoor specialist, among others.
And it isn't done. Marc Lore, Walmart's head of e-commerce ー a job he was given after he sold Jet to Walmart for $3 billion ー [said](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/15/walmart-reports-q3-2018-earnings.html) he's willing to buy 40 or more of these niche brands.
Another bright spot in the earnings was grocery pick-up and delivery. Walmart is the largest grocer in the U.S, with 23 percent of the market. In the last year, it has heavily invested in grocery pick-up at more than 2,000 stores and grocery delivery at 600 locations ー and counting.
Amazon, through its acquisition of Whole Foods, has been building out its own grocery delivery service, offering free same-day delivery to Prime members in some urban markets.
While it has a long way to go to compete with the online dominance of Amazon, which owns nearly half the e-commerce market, Walmart has something Amazon lacks: real estate, and lots of it. Ninety percent of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart store, giving it built-in infrastructure to test pick-up and delivery services ー like groceries ー that younger shoppers have now come to expect.
Walmart's online strategy appears to be "resonating well" with consumers, Martis said. Grocery sales are at a nine-year high, and e-commerce sales will grow 40 percent this year alone, thanks to a redesigned website and the digitally native acquisitions begin to pay off.
The question remains whether any of this will help create a halo effect for Walmart's overall brand in the eyes of the millennial consumers it covets.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/walmart-reports-earnings-boosts-outlook-for-holidays).
Wealthfront’s CFO Alan Iberman talks the $2.05B IPO and the major moment for robo banking as the company bets on AI, automation, and “self-driving money."
A rare magnum of Dom Pérignon Vintage 1961 champagne that was specially produced for the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana has failed to sell during an auction. Danish auction house Bruun Rasmussen handled the bidding Thursday. The auction's house website lists the bottle as not sold. It was expected to fetch up to around $93,000. It is one of 12 bottles made to celebrate the royal wedding. Little was revealed about the seller. The auction house says the bids did not receive the desired minimum price.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
OpenAI has appointed Slack CEO Denise Dresser as its first chief of revenue. Dresser will oversee global revenue strategy and help businesses integrate AI into daily operations. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently emphasized improving ChatGPT, which now has over 800 million weekly users. Despite its success, OpenAI faces competition from companies like Google and concerns about profitability. The company earns money from premium ChatGPT subscriptions but hasn't ventured into advertising. Altman had recently announced delays in developing new products like AI agents and a personal assistant.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
