Walmart has reportedly became the No. 3 online retailer in the U.S. overtaking the technology giant Apple. Walmart has been recently making various efforts and it seems that the company got the reward.
Amazon still leads by a wide margin, accounting for 48 percent of e-commerce sales in 2018. On the other hand, Walmart (including also Sam’s Club and Jet.com) is supposed to capture 4 percent of all online retail spending in the U.S. by year-end, totaling $20.91 billion.
This move has come up following Walmart’s strong earnings which saw the retailer reporting a 43 percent increase in online sales. Also, the company’s year-end forecast for both earnings and sales increased to a great extent.
Apart from this, Walmart beat Wall St.’s expectations in its fiscal third quarter, with $1.08 earnings per share instead of the expected $1.01. However, it fell short on revenue with $124.89 billion versus the $125.55 billion expected which was because of the currency complications.
“Walmart’s e-commerce business has been firing on all cylinders lately,” said eMarketer principal analyst Andrew Lipsman. “The retail giant continues to make smart acquisitions to extend its e-commerce portfolio and attract younger and more affluent shoppers.”
On the other hand, Apple will grow just over 18 percent in 2018 – a slowdown related to slowing domestic sales for smartphones and other devices. Its portion of the e-commerce market is relatively unchanged from 2017 to 2018, going from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent.
In terms of comparison, Walmart is increasing its share from 3.3 percent to 4.0 percent. Both these companies are behind eBay.