Will Newton/Getty Images
- Walmart has been steadily gaining share from high-earning households over the past year.
- Shoppers of all income brackets are drawn to the retailer's low prices and growing convenience.
- E-commerce sales trends are also getting a big lift with the rollout of agentic AI features.
Walmart's former side hustle is getting serious.
The retail giant reported that 2025 was its first full year of profitability in its e-commerce operations, which started — as most ventures do — needing time and money to get rolling.
"We've far surpassed the breakeven level," CFO John David Rainey said of the e-commerce business in the company's fourth quarter earnings call Thursday. "The momentum is only upward from here."
The bet is paying off thanks in large part to the addition of higher-income shoppers, who Walmart said are attracted to its combination of low prices and increasing convenience.
"The majority of our share gains came from households making more than $100,000," CEO John Furner said on the earnings call.
The company said high-earning households have responded favorably to Walmart's online and in-app offerings, from ordering their weekly groceries to picking out stylish new outfits, as has been the case for several quarters now.
For the fiscal year, Walmart's overall sales grew 4.7% to $713.2 billion, with e-commerce increasing by nearly 25% to top $150 billion.
Despite Walmart's growth, e-commerce giant Amazon dethroned it as the world's largest company by revenue last year with $716.9 billion in revenue. The stock dipped immediately after the earnings report but recovered during trading on Thursday.
But Walmart's progress in e-commerce could give Amazon a run for its money, thanks to its physical proximity to 95% of US households.
"Stores are a huge part of the solution to deliver the customer experiences that the customers are looking for," CEO John Furner said on the call. "Having the US with 5,200 locations between Walmart and Sam's, where inventory is forward-deployed, is really helpful."
Amazon, for its part, is working hard to counter Walmart's dominant physical presence, which so far has given it an edge in delivering items like groceries and everyday essentials in an hour or less.
Walmart delivers the grocery aisle and the fashion catwalk
It's not just fresh food delivery that's helping Walmart reach new shoppers. Rainey said shoppers are using some of the savings from groceries to try new items from other categories.
"It's not just convenience," Rainey said. "I'd argue fashion is not really a convenience item. It shows that our broader assortment is appealing to a much larger customer base."
Fashion not only led sales growth in general merchandise in the US, Rainey said, but on-trend styles are also helping draw in more of these high-income households, who wind up sticking around.
"They're coming to Walmart, in many cases, some of them for the first time, and they're enjoying an experience that makes them want to come back these platforms," he said.
GlobalData retail analyst Neil Saunders said his firm's data also shows wealthy households increasingly choosing Walmart for more than groceries, thanks to its expanded assortment and in-store experiences.
It's still too soon to see the impact of Walmart's recent AI partnerships, but Furner says the early results promise to turbocharge sales online and in-app. He said the company's in-house shopping assistant bot, Sparky, has led to 35% larger transaction totals.
"Roughly half of our app users have used Sparky, and when they use Sparky, it drives them to build bigger baskets," US segment CEO David Guggina said.
Walmart still has a long road ahead to catch Amazon's online sales, but the past year has shown that it now has a powerful engine to get there.