Figures mark biggest same-store sales increase in four years.
Walmart’s Q2 earnings reached $3.77 billion, an increase from $3.48 billion last year, while total revenue increased 0.5 percent to $120.85 billion, according to a company statement. The figures mark the biggest same-store sales increase for the retail giant in four years.
President and CEO Doug McMillion stated, “We’re pleased with the positive momentum in our business. Our strategy in the U.S. is working as we delivered an eighth consecutive quarter of positive comps, and international also performed well. We remain focused on building e-commerce capabilities globally and executing our omni-channel plan, as evidenced by our recent alliance with JD.com in China and agreement to acquire Jet.com in the U.S. Walmart is uniquely positioned to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience where we save them time and money.”
Among the investments the retail giant has made to help boost its sales number are an increase in hourly wages and physical improvements to its stores. These investments are now paying off, and are resulting in more customers coming into the stores, according to CFO Brett Biggs.
“We believe a contributing fact to the results is our consistent improvement in customer experience,” Biggs explained. “Customer surveys indicate that we’re making good progress in providing a better shopping experience with cleaner stores, faster checkout and friendlier service. We’ve also broadened our e-commerce assortment, strengthened our mobile capacities and expanded Online Grocery to more than 60 markets and nearly 400 locations. While there is still a lot of work to do in executing our multi-year plan, we’re encouraged by the results we’re seeing.”
“This was our eighth consecutive quarter of positive comp sales and our seventh consecutive quarter of positive traffic,” CEO Doug McMillon said on the earnings call. “I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing when I visit stores and pleased with how Greg Foran, our leadership team and our associates are executing our plan to win. Our customer satisfaction scores continue to improve, and the team did a great job of managing the flow of inventory again this quarter. Comp store inventory was down 6.5% and in-stock levels are up.”
