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).
The national average for a gallon of gas is closing in on $5 dollars per gallon and it's putting pressure on already strained budgets. The summer travel season could stall out before it even gets started. Cheddar's Shannon Lanier has some great hacks to help you save a few bucks at the pump.
Lower Manhattan's iconic Stone Street is getting a bubbly makeover. Champagne Nicolas Feuillatte will be 'unleashing the bubbles' throughout the month of June in New York City, with themed events, bubble ball pits, and special menu and drink experiences. Anne-Laure Domenichini, director of communications for Champagne Nicholas Feuillatte, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer for the Human Rights Foundation, joins Closing Bell, where he explains where tech experts are getting it wrong when they call crypto risky and unproven. He also stresses the importance of crypto and points to how Ukraine was able to use Bitcoin during the onset of the Russian invasion.
API platform RapidAPI recently became a unicorn with a $1 billion valuation after raising $150 million in a Series D funding round led by Softbank Vision Two Fund. Microsoft's Venture Fund, M12, and Andreessen Horowitz also participated. RapidAPI says it provides the world's largest API hub which enables millions of developers and companies to build software faster. Iddo Gino, founder and CEO of RapidAPI, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The PGA Tour has announced that it will suspend players that are competing in the LIV Golf event that teed off today. At least 17 players, including names like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Sergio Garcia are banned from the PGA Tour competition. Hilary Fordwich, a business analyst and golf expert, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the PGA had to go this route. This is a threat to the future of golf for them, and there's been many contentions about them not being fair and that this is vindictive," she said. "Don't forget, of course, they represent sort of a monopoly in the history of golf. So you've got two sides to this story. You've got those the purists, those that feel that golf should only be a certain way and that there are only these limited events that the PGA puts on. And then you've got other people who are saying … this is all about money"
Facebook parent Meta officially has changed it’s ticker symbol from ‘FB’ to ‘META’. Paul Meeks, a portfolio manager, Independent Solutions Wealth Management, and a professor of practice in the Baker School of Business at The Citadel, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the tech giant has had to make big changes to its name, its ticker, and its business plans. "When you see what's happening in digital advertising — and there was a slowdown there even before the threat of a recession, which could cause a even more drastic slowdown next year — they had to pivot," he said. Meeks noted he sees Facebook dominating in the metaverse space going forward — whatever that may end up being.
Sports merchandising company Fanatics announced it will be making trading cards featuring college athletes, a deal made possible by the NCAA's change to NIL rules for its players. Anchors Kristen Scholer and Ken Buffa break down the deal for Cheddar.
