PetrolPlaza Correspondent Pablo Plaza recently published that The American retail giant Walmart experienced a 72% online sales increase during the coronavirus crisis, recording a comparable sales growth of 10%.
While analysts had forecasted a 7.2 % increase in the first quarter of the year, the “unprecedented demand” in the online sales segment boosted its revenue growth of 8.6 % to 134.6 billion dollars.
“Our omnichannel strategy, enabling customers to shop in seamless, flexible ways, is built for serving the needs of customers during this crisis and in the future”, USA Today quoted CEO Doug McMillon.
The large turnover has not dissuaded Walmart from closing down its online branch Jet.com, bought by the American retailer in 2016 with the goal of learning how to compete with Amazon in the technology start-up market. Jet’s employees are today integrated within Walmart and work on innovation and digitisation projects such as the Intelligent Retail Lab (IRL).
Walmart will not forecast for the rest of the year due to “unprecedented volatility” in the economic situation.