Walmart brought in $123.9 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal year, about $1.2 billion more than the same period in 2018.
Comparable store sales for Walmart U.S. grew 3.4%, the best Q1 number in nine years and the fourth straight quarter of 3% growth or more, according to the company.
E-commerce sales were up 37% for Walmart U.S., and the company described the growth of online grocery as a factor.
“Customers continue to really appreciate our grocery pickup and delivery offerings as we scale them across the U.S.,” executive vice president and chief financial officer Brett Biggs stated in the management summary of the Q1 earnings report. “We have about 2,450 stores that offer free grocery pickup and nearly 1,000 stores that offer same-day grocery delivery.
“We’re on track to offer same-day grocery delivery from 1,600 stores while also offering grocery pickup from 3,100 stores by year-end, providing coverage to approximately 50% and nearly 80% of the U.S. population, respectively,” Biggs said.
Related: Walmart is snagging these shoppers with grocery pickup
President and CEO Doug McMillon noted in the summary a few of Walmart’s plastic waste reduction goals, which were also discussed at the company’s sustainability summit in April.
Walmart is planning to make its own-brand packaging 100% recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025; to have 20% recycled content in its own packaging; to enable shoppers to more easily recycle by including “customer-friendly” labeling on packaging; and to urge suppliers to move in a similar direction.
“We’re making a difference for our planet, our business and our customers,” McMillon said. “I encourage you to take a closer look at the progress we’re making in areas such as associate opportunity or emissions reductions, among our many other accomplishments, by accessing our recently published Environmental, Social and Governance report.”
Other Q1 highlights from Walmart included the debut of voice ordering for online grocery and the introduction of Walmart’s Intelligent Retail Lab store, which experiments with artificial intelligence capabilities to see what improvements they could enable.
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