On Thursday, the company said e-commerce sales had grown 63 percent in the United States in the latest quarter.<br />Walmart said it now offers 50 million items through its website, up from 35 million in the last quarter and 10 million from the same time last year.<br />Walmart Reports 63% Rise in Online Sales -<br />By RACHEL ABRAMSMAY 18, 2017<br />Walmart has always excelled at selling products in its cavernous stores.<br />“This is extraordinary growth, and we’re pleased with the traction we’re generating across our e-commerce<br />offerings,” said Brett Biggs, Walmart’s executive vice president and chief financial officer.<br />Comparable-store sales, one measure of growth that looks at stores that have been open for at least a year, rose 1.4 percent.<br />The earnings results on Thursday gave only hints of about how much the acquisitions gave the company<br />a one-time bump in sales, rather than long-lasting fruit from other changes the company has made.<br />Walmart executives said that the “majority” of the company’s online growth was organic —<br />meaning not from the companies it had bought — but did not break out specific numbers.<br />Overall sales rose 1.4 percent, to $117.5 billion, in the latest quarter compared with a year ago.<br />Activity on Amazon, which recorded about $136 billion in annual sales last year,<br />accounts for more than half of all online shopping in the United States.
