Author | Liao Yifan reports | New Retail Reference
Walmart continues to lead the way
Just yesterday, the latest Fortune Global 500 list was released!
According to this year's list, the total operating income of the world's top 500 companies is approaching the $41 trillion mark, which accounts for one-third of global GDP, a slight increase of about 0.1% from the same period last year.
It is worth noting that the retail giant Walmart has been named the world's largest company for the eleventh consecutive year due to its strong market influence.
In the fiercely competitive business world, Amazon has successfully returned to the second place with precise cost control and revenue growth strategies. China's State Grid Corporation of China continues to rank third.
Source: "Fortune"
It is worth noting that this is the 11th year that Wal-Mart has been firmly on the throne of the "world's largest company", and it is also the 19th time that Wal-Mart has topped the list since 1995.
According to Walmart's public financial report data, in fiscal year 2024, Walmart's total revenue will be $648.125 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6%, while its net profit will be $15.511 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32.8%.
And in fiscal year 2025, Walmart is still doing well.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2025, Walmart achieved a bumper revenue and profit, with total revenue of $161.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.0%; Net profit reached US$5.307 billion, up 179.9%.
"Forget Gates and Buffett, in United States, it is the Walton family that really has an impact on the United States economy and society."
This sentence, which was used by Fortune magazine to evaluate Wal-Mart, is enough to reflect the strong influence of Wal-Mart.
The retail industry is in turmoil, but Walmart has always been proud of the rivers and lakes, maintaining performance growth year after year, and even hitting new highs.
The data will tell.
It is not difficult to see from the financial report that Sam's Club and the e-commerce sector are the two most powerful growth points for Walmart.
Increasing e-commerce has achieved remarkable results
Compared with the senior e-commerce giants led by Amazon, Walmart's start on the e-commerce track is obviously lagging behind.
However, with a keen sense of the market, Walmart was aware of the consumption trend of online shopping in a timely manner and vigorously launched its own online business layout.
On the basis of sticking to its signature "low daily price" strategy, Walmart's online business layout can be described as a two-pronged approach:
On the one hand, the official website has been carefully revised and optimized, and the interface style and user experience are more in line with the aesthetics and needs of high-end customers, so as to enhance the online shopping experience of customers.
On the other hand, through continuous optimization of the supply chain management system, we can achieve a high degree of cost control and ensure that we can maintain high profit margins while maintaining the competitiveness of commodity prices.
New Retail Reference believes that the most important reason why Wal-Mart's e-commerce business has achieved remarkable results is that it has once again appealed to its main audience: high-income consumers.
Suffering from inflation and high interest rates, high-income consumers are also looking for ways to save money.
Walmart has clearly noticed this, not only upgrading its stores, launching more discounted products, but also further optimizing its logistics services.
In addition to launching the "Pickup Today" service, which allows customers to place online orders and pick up goods in physical stores on the same day, it has also actively explored innovative technologies such as drone delivery to continuously enhance its competitiveness in the field of logistics and distribution.
It can be said that while having a strong supply chain system, Walmart has given full play to its own category advantages and omni-channel advantages.
Based on the strong grocery category, the offline stores and online shopping business are closely integrated, which meets the needs of customers to the greatest extent and provides consumers with a convenient and all-round shopping experience.
This series of operations has made many high-income families more willing to choose to buy cheaper necessities at Walmart, and the most intuitive embodiment is undoubtedly data.
According to the first quarter of 2025 financial report data, Walmart's sales in the United States market increased by 4.6% year-on-year to $108.7 billion.
United States same-store sales increased 3.8%, and United States e-commerce sales increased 22% over the same period; Global e-commerce sales increased by 21%.
When we focus on the Chinese market, we can see:
Walmart China's net sales in the first quarter were US$5.7 billion, up 16.2% year-on-year, comparable sales up 12.5%, and e-commerce net sales up 23%.
Source: Walmart China
It is not difficult to see from the data that Walmart's e-commerce business is developing very rapidly and has played an important role in the growth of its performance.
Among them, Walmart's online business has performed particularly strongly in the Chinese market - it is reported that Walmart China's e-commerce penetration rate has reached an unprecedented 43%, an increase of more than 200 basis points from the first quarter of last year.
I have to admit that Walmart has done the right and steady move to increase online e-commerce.
Steady growth in performance
Sam made a big difference
While Walmart is "putting down roots" in the grocery hypermarket, Sam's Club, another masterpiece of Walton, is in charge of "blossoming upwards".
This high-end warehouse-style membership store incubated by Wal-Mart has quickly become the favorite of the middle class in United States with its unique business model and high-quality goods and services.
And with Walmart's global layout, it has further conquered more audiences.
Source: Weibo
Among them, Sam's Club's performance in the Chinese market is particularly impressive.
Previously, in the "2023 China Top 100 Supermarkets" list released by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association (CCFA), Walmart China achieved its "three consecutive championships" with its strong strength.
More than 60% of Walmart China's steady growth has been contributed by Sam's.
Since the opening of its first store in Shenzhen in 1996, Sam's has been in the Chinese market for more than two decades, and in recent years, Sam's has significantly accelerated its expansion in Chinese mainland.
So far, Sam's has successfully opened a total of 48 high-quality stores in 24 major cities across the country, and will open 6 new stores this year.
This figure not only demonstrates its market influence, but also reflects the high recognition of Sam's unique business model by Chinese consumers.
Walmart CFO Rainey has given great praise to the Chinese market, he said: "In terms of total revenue, some of our best performing stores are in China, or Sam's Club in China. ”
New Retail Reference believes that in the face of the vast Chinese market, Sam's has not only brought stable customer flow and sales to Wal-Mart, but also effectively enhanced Wal-Mart's own brand influence.
At the same time, the huge potential and purchasing power of the Chinese market determine that it will continue to be the focus of Walmart in the future.
The annual financial report is a good proof of this.
By comparing the figures for fiscal 2023 and 2024, it can be seen that Sam's contribution to Walmart China's overall revenue has increased significantly in the past year alone: from 12.84% to 13.8%.
At the same time, its revenue scale has also achieved a substantial increase, from 73.556 billion yuan to 84.345 billion yuan.
It is no exaggeration to say that Sam's Club is the most important hematopoietic organ of Walmart China and the core development engine of Walmart China.
It can be seen that Wal-Mart's path to dominating the retail field is very clear:
On the one hand, while developing offline stores, it also relies on the e-commerce field to accurately meet the growing online consumer demand.
On the other hand, relying on Sam's Club's unique warehouse-style retail model, it has achieved both growth in performance and users.
Together, these two segments form a solid foundation for Walmart's overall performance growth and inject strong impetus into the company's future development. Judging from the current business situation, Wal-Mart's development potential is still strong.