WASHINGTON, DC–Wal-Mart has announced that it expects its US e-commerce business to increase its online sales by 40% for fiscal 2019. It is a formidable projection considering its online operations are now five years old; although perhaps not as much in light of the fact that its online sales skyrocketed by 60% in Q2 of this year.
It is little secret that the retailer is competing not only with Amazon but other stores such as Target, where people also shop online for their sundry goods. Now Wal-Mart is adding grocery items to the mix, with its plans to open 1,000 grocery pickup spots at its US stores for online purchases.
“We're combining the accessibility of our stores with e-commerce to provide new and exciting ways for customers to shop,” CEO Doug McMillon said in a prepared statement.
In a way Wal-Mart has become a cause célèbre of sorts — it's a big box retailer that did not succumb to the Internet or Amazon but instead was able, after a fumbling start, to marry e-commerce with its brick-and-mortar presence. “I applaud Wal-Mart for recognizing that they need to take a unified approach to their customer,” Sam Latone, co-CEO of The Shopping Center Group tells GlobeSt.com.
But is Wal-Mart really the poster child that the brick-and-mortar set is looking to for inspiration in this battle? Wal-Mart expects total net sales to rise at least 3% in fiscal 2019 and it plans to open at most 15 SuperCenters in the US.
Latone says it is a mistake to compare the expected 40% increase in online sales with the projected 3% in total sales.
“Recently I went to a store looking for a new pair of shoes and I saw what I wanted. It didn't have my size, but the store associate was able to order the shoes in my size from the online site from his iPad,” he says by way of example.
“So the question is — was that a physical or digital sale? Not all retailers would categorize that particular sale in the same way. I think in many respects we are taking the growth of e-commerce sales out of context because at the end of the day we're moving towards a seamless blend between the physical and digital world.”
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Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
