Can $14 Billion Get Walmart To e-Commerce Profitability?
This is an excerpt from Monday's (2|22) Point of Sale retail supply chain newsletter sponsored by ArcBest. Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) reported Q4 earnings last week that fell short of Wall Street's expectations, despite posting same-store sales growth of 8.6%. That's a huge handle for a company Walmart's size and is by far the highest growth among comparable stores in the past 10 years, more than double the next closest growth rate of 3.7% in 2019. But Walmart's stock sold off hard after earnings were posted because Walmart's costs came in well above expectations (it tallied $1.1 billion in COVID-related expenses in Q4 alone) and the company guided for sales to moderate this year. Here are the highlights: ( Data: Company Filings) Walmart and other general retailers benefited greatly from pandemic spending trends. I don't need to spend much time explaining that Walmart began the year with Americans hoarding household essentials — y'all remember the toilet paper tussles. Nor do I need to explain why Walmart maintained extremely strong same-store sales growth throughout the year — y'all weren't eating out either.
Can $14 Billion Get Walmart To e-Commerce Profitability?
This is an excerpt from Monday's (2|22) Point of Sale retail supply chain newsletter sponsored by ArcBest. Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) reported Q4 earnings last week that fell short of Wall Street's expectations, despite posting same-store sales growth of 8.6%. That's a huge handle for a company Walmart's size and is by far the highest growth among comparable stores in the past 10 years, more than double the next closest growth rate of 3.7% in 2019. But Walmart's stock sold off hard after earnings were posted because Walmart's costs came in well above expectations (it tallied $1.1 billion in COVID-related expenses in Q4 alone) and the company guided for sales to moderate this year. Here are the highlights: ( Data: Company Filings) Walmart and other general retailers benefited greatly from pandemic spending trends. I don't need to spend much time explaining that Walmart began the year with Americans hoarding household essentials — y'all remember the toilet paper tussles. Nor do I need to explain why Walmart maintained extremely strong same-store sales growth throughout the year — y'all weren't eating out either.