Walmart Earnings Slowing: Still Seems Reasonably Well-Positioned

Walmart Earnings Slowing: Still Seems Reasonably Well-Positioned

Walmart announced Q1 2022 Earnings this morning. Here are a few callouts:

- eCommerce growth essentially flat at 1% y/y growth. (In contrast, Amazon's net sales increased 7% y/y)

- Walmart US: gaining share in grocery. Basket size is up, units per basket down.

- Wages, inventory levels, Supply Chain Fuel Costs big reason for profitability miss.

- Global advertising business grew 30% y/y.

- Lost big fulfillment center in a fire. Volume spread to stores.

- Walmart gaining share in grocery due to elevated pricing and

Walmart's value position.

- Walmart GoLocal: 1,600 delivery points now available in the US (about one-third of stores - seems like good progress).

US category mix moved to food & consumables more. Away from discretionary.

Some thoughts on the results:

* I would have liked to hear more utilization or customer updates for GoLocal.

* Walmart's recovery from huge fulfillment center fire speaks to value of distributed fulfillment strategy.

* Inflation effects can be seen by basket sizes going up with units per basket going down.

In this type of economy, the learnings are a little bit harder to come by because:

- Each quarter is a little different (lumpy progress/results).

- Focus on free cash flow is generally the biggest lesson. This makes me worry about upcoming Amazon quarters due to heavy infrastructure build-out in the last 2 years.

Usually I like Q&A but I didn't learn much this time.

Rick Watson

Rick Watson founded RMW Commerce Consulting after spending 20+ years as a technology entrepreneur and operator exclusively in the eCommerce industry with companies like ChannelAdvisor, BarnesandNoble.com, Merchantry, and Pitney Bowes.

Watson’s work today is centered on supporting investors and management teams incubating and growing direct-to-consumer businesses. Most recently, in partnership with WHP Global, Rick was a critical resource in architecting the WHP+ platform, a new turnkey direct to consumer digital e-commerce platform that powers AnneKlein.com and JosephAbboud.com.

Watson also hosts a weekly podcast, Watson Weekly, where he shares an unbiased, unfiltered expert take on the retail sector’s biggest players.

In the past year alone, Rick has spoken at many in-person and virtual events as well as podcasts on topics ranging from retail/ecom to supply chain/logistics and even digital grocery including CommerceNext IRL, ASCM Connect, and Retail Innovation Conference.

https://www.rmwcommerce.com/
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