Walmart.com 2005 sales top $1 billion
Walmart.com, the online sales channel for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retail chain, in 2005 turned in one of its best e-commerce years and is poised for even more growth in 2006.
Wal-Mart says about 500 million total visitors clicked on Walmart.com in 2005, a figure the retailer expects to increase by 40% to 700 million visitors in 2006. Though online sales still only total about 1% of Wal-Mart’s annual sales of about $285 billion, Walmart.com generated Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide estimated e-commerce sales of $1.17 billion, an increase of 50.2% from estimated web sales of $782.2 million in 2004. “We continue to grow at two or three times the industry growth rate, and 2005 was consistent with this,” says Raul Vazquez, vice president of marketing at Walmart.com.
Vazquez says the e-commerce site is continuing to grow because the online channel is taking full advantage of the company’s well-known and extremely efficient supply chain. Like Wal-Mart’s more than 3,857 stores in the U.S., Walmart.com also aims to offer the lowest prices. “We offer the customer a good value proposition,” Vazquez says. In 2006, Walmart.com, which carries more than 1 million SKUs, will expand its merchandising categories to include more baby, home entertainment, consumer electronics and digital media products.
In January, Wal-Mart, No. 12 in the Internet Retailer Top 400 Guide to Retail Web Sites, introduced Soundcheck, an original series of musical performances that feature groups such as the punk pop band Yellowcard and the rock band Switchfoot. Online Soundcheck is designed to increase Walmart.com’s presence in the expanding digital music market. At Walmart.com visitors can stream 40-minute concerts by various groups and download an audio track for 88 cents. “This unprecedented multi-channel music offering is yet another opportunity to further deepen our relationship with customers and provide an intimate setting for them to see and hear top musicians,” says Kevin Swint, divisional merchandising manager for digital media.
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