E-commerce

Grocery sales drive robust Walmart earnings despite inflation

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November 18, 2021

Walmart beat earnings projection in Q3, despite inflation and supply chains issues, with a big thanks to grocery sales. The healthy earnings report this week prompted the retailer to boost its forecast for the year, according to a CNBC report.

Revenue was $140.53 billion, a 4% increase compared to a year ago, and quite a bit more than the $135.60 billion expected by industry analysts. Earning per share were $1.45 adjusted compared to a projected $1.40.

The retailer's U.S. same-store sales jumped 9.2%, compared to a year earlier and U.S. e-commerce sales increased 8% compared the same quarter a year ago.

"We've always been an inflation fighter for customers," Walmart CFO Brett Biggs said in an interview with CNBC. "Our scale and the product breadth that we have allows us to do things in a way that is beneficial to customers and beneficial to shareholders.'

The boost in grocery sales is due to U.S. shoppers returning to brick-and-mortar sales, according to a Walmart press release.