Walmart Inc.’s revenue grew 7.3% to $177.8 billion in the first quarter behind strong global e-commerce sales, a byproduct of continued investment in ultra-fast fulfillment from stores and the expansion of the Marketplace platform for third-party sellers.
Domestic and international e-commerce sales grew more than 26% during the period, driven by demand for convenient delivery, and represented 23% of the s net sales, the retail giant reported on Thursday. It was the ninth consecutive quarter of plus-20% e-commerce sales for Walmart (NASDAQ: WMT) in the U.S., where overall U.S. net revenue increased 4.5%.
International sales grew 10.1%, led by store-fulfilled pickup and delivery and marketplace fees. Store-fulfilled delivery in the United States has more than doubled over the past two years, with more than 36% of those orders in the first quarter delivered in under three hours — up a point from the 2025 fourth quarter measure.
Sam’s Club, the company’s membership outlet, recorded a 6.1% gain in net sales, which also were aided by e-commerce activity. Delivery from the club grew more than 90% year over year with the sales mix from e-commerce now at 20% of net sales, excluding fuel recovery.
In early April, Sam’s Club launched an express delivery service from local stores, with items arriving in as soon as one hour. During the first three weeks of operation, the retailer fulfilled nearly 65,000 orders for everyday essentials, forgotten items and last-minute needs, underscoring consumer demand for super-fast delivery, according to a company blog posting. Walmart built the technology that enables one-hour delivery and integrated with its enterprise platform to give club teams real-time visibility into what inventory is needed and how to fulfill it quickly.
Management said Walmart can now reach 60% of the U.S. population in 30 minutes or less. That’s important as Amazon rolls out 30-minute delivery for select items in major metro areas. Executives attributed U.S. e-commerce margins of about 12%, in line with recent quarters, to meeting customer expectations for better fulfillment and delivery speed.
In India, Flipkart now operates more than 800 micro-fulfillment centers used for fast delivery, with the ability to deliver items in less than 13 minutes on average.
“Fast fuels frequency. When we are able to deliver to customers in the time frames that they expect, we see a much greater engagement with our customers,” said CFO John David Rainey during a conference call with analysts, echoing an Amazon position.
Walmart recently expanded its marketplace platform into Canada and Mexico and sales on its U.S. marketplace grew almost 50% in the quarter versus the prior year. Sellers increasingly can tap tools such as advertising and fulfillment to support their business, as Walmart builds a platform to compete with Amazon.
CEO John Furner said Walmart is also getting faster and more reliable in how it fulfills online orders.
“For the quarter, we delivered more than 3.5 billion units, same or next day globally. Investments in our supply chain and the application of AI are improving how we position inventory, make fulfillment decisions, and serve customers and members in real time,” he told analysts.
In China, Walmart delivered more than 500 million packages, with about 75% of those arriving in under one hour.
“Our store and club network, more than 10,900 locations, continues to be a key advantage. It serves as the physical infrastructure that enables speed at a cost structure that is both attractive and improving. As the economics continue to improve, speed becomes an engine of operating leverage, not just a better experience for customers and members,” Furner said.
In addition to making fulfillment operations more efficient, Walmart continues to scale up automation across its supply chain in the U.S.
About half of e-commerce volume from fulfillment centers is processed by automated systems and more than 60% of stores are receiving some level of freight from automated distribution centers, which the company achieved last year. Furner said more than half of Walmart’s regional distribution centers are in various stages of being retrofitted with new technology, which requires warehouse workers to receive additional training.
Rival Target this week highlighted how it is working to improve supply chain efficiency and store fulfillment as it tries to catch up with Walmart.
Walmart posted operating income of $7.5 billion, up 5% y/y. Management said it expected profits to increase in subsequent quarters. The company’s stock was down 6.5% in late-day trading as investors seemed concerned with cautious guidance despite the solid first-quarter earnings.
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Write to Eric Kulisch at ekulisch@freightwaves.com.
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