According to Walmart’s Q4 report issued this morning, sales from online grocery shopping have increased by 43%. To complement this figure, overall US sales are up 42% from the same period last year. 

Stronger-than-expected holiday sales growth and the surge in online shopping has attributed to Walmart’s success in the latest quarter.

Walmart Online Grocery Shopping

The ‘everything’ grocery store has pegged the surge in online shopping to the expansion in its grocery pickup and delivery service. 

Walmart (NYSE:WMT) has also added a wide variety of goods on its website.

In an effort to challenge Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Instacart among others, Walmart figured out a sensible way to offer an online grocery shopping service that doesn’t lose money.

And the results speak for themselves.

Walmart beat analyst expectations, showcasing $138.8 billion USD in revenue for the quarter and earnings per share of $1.41. Analysts had predicted $138.76 billion and earnings per share of $1.33.

On the news, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said in a statement:

“Progress on initiatives to accelerate growth, along with a favorable economic environment, helped us deliver strong comp sales and gain market share.”

Grocery Pick Up

Walmart first developed its grocery pickup service in an effort to make grocery shopping as easy as possible. The free service allows customers to pick up their pre-ordered groceries and skip the checkout queues. 

Most recently, Walmart developed its service further. According to Tech Crunch, it began working with “a network of partners to offer grocery delivery to customers’ homes.”

Further, the grocery store, “ended relationships with Uber, Lyft, and Deliv while adding new partners like Point Pickup, Skipcart, AxleHire and Roadie, and shifting business to partners like Postmates and DoorDash.”

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The overall result has seen this new wave of convenient shopping lead to a surge in online grocery shopping.

Growth and Development

Walmart’s grocery pickup service is available at over 2,100 locations, and delivery is on offer at nearly 800. According to the company, these numbers are set to increase to 3,100 and 1,600 respectively by the end of fiscal 2020.

The major retailer has also been making large adjustments to its e-commerce platform. It has added new, high-end brands to its assortments listings. This includes sports merchandise. The retailer has also created a 3D virtual shopping player in its Home category and simultaneously launched an eBooks platform in partnership with Kobo.

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