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BUSINESS Friday 16 November 2018
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Walmart flexes its muscle against Amazon

By ANNE D'INNOCENZIO tration for many shoppers.
Associated Press In time for the holidays,
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart, Walmart has rolled out a
armed with grocery and program that allows its staff
other online services, is to check out customers
proving it can do battle and provide receipts right
with Amazon. on the spot in the busiest
The world's largest retailer sections of the store.
delivered strong third-quar- Foran told The Associ-
ter results Thursday, extend- ated Press that it's looking
ing a streak of sales growth to bring back Scan & Go,
into its 11th straight quar- which allowed shoppers to
ter that showed it's pulling scan items while they shop
shoppers online and in the with their own personal de-
store. It also raised profit vice or a Walmart device
expectations for the year and walk out.
heading into the holiday It had been shelved twice
shopping season. after customers found it too
Like other retailers, Walmart clunky.
is benefiting from a strong But the first big test this holi-
job market and rising con- day season is Black Friday.
sumer confidence. Home "It's a proxy for stores. If you
Depot and Macy's raised run good stores, people
annual profit expectations will want to go to them,"
this week. But they are also This Nov. 9, 2018, file photo shows a Walmart Supercenter in Houston. Walmart Inc. reports earn- said Foran, who will be on
benefiting from the misfor- ings Thursday, Nov. 15. a plane from 2 p.m. to mid-
tunes of others. Toys R Us Associated Press night on Thanksgiving visit-
and Bon-Ton Stores have ing stores and monitoring
gone out of business, while focus on fashion and home ing for workers who are tak- other traditional chains like the sales.
the bankruptcy of Sears furnishings. That all helped ing on new roles or rede- Target. Consulting firm Bain The company on Thursday
Holdings Corp. is creating to drive a 43 percent in- fined responsibilities while & Co. predicts that Ama- posted third-quarter earn-
more opportunities to grab crease in online sales in the using scanning robots and zon in the U.S. will outgrow ings of $1.71 billion, or 58
sales. Meanwhile, J.C. Pen- U.S. during the latest quar- other automation. the market and capture up cents per share.
ney is still floundering, with ter. That was up from a 40 Walmart is deploying giant to half of all e-commerce Adjusted earnings were
shares plunging after the percent increase the sec- pickup towers that spit out sales by the end of the $1.08 per share, which is 6
company withdrew profit ond quarter period and a online orders in hundreds year, making it even stron- cents better than expect-
guidance and lowered its 33 percent increase in the of its stores. Customers can ger than a year ago. ed.
sales expectations for the first quarter. now also better find items in In fact, in the free shipping The world's largest retailer
year. A visit to a Walmart store in the store because of digital arena, Walmart found itself posted revenue of $124.89
Walmart sales were strong Houston last week showed maps on their smartphone. the laggard during the start billion, about in line with
in such areas as fall sea- generous offerings in holi- Workers, armed with new of the holidays. forecasts.
sonal goods, toys and fresh day merchandise such as apps on their mobile de- Target for the first time Walmart Inc. says it now ex-
food. That helped sales at large interactive toy po- vices, are also able to man- got rid of its $35 threshold pects full-year earnings of
stores open at least a year nies and hot pink toy cars age routine tasks, freeing for two-day delivery for $4.75 to $4.85 per share.q
rise 3.4 percent, a bit slower stacked high in aisles. Shoes them to serve the customer the holidays. That move
from the previous quarter's are now unboxed and are or check them out in key was followed by Amazon,
4.5 percent at Walmart's hanging on racks to make areas of the store. which announced earlier in
U.S. division, which marked it easier for shoppers to find "We can provide a much the month that it was going
its best performance in them. better customer experi- to make two-day shipping
more than a decade. The "We're feeling confident ence because we are in available to all shoppers in-
measure, an indicator of going into this holiday sea- stock of the right item, at cluding non-Prime custom-
a retailer's health, was son," said Walmart U.S. CEO the right time and at the ers, without the $25 spend-
helped by a 1.2 percent Greg Foran during an ex- same time it is going to help ing requirement.
increase in customer traffic clusive interview and tour us be much more precise," Amazon is also expand-
and a 2.2 percent increase last week at the Houston he added. ing its cashier-less physical
in transactions. store. "I think the standards, Still, Foran acknowledges stores, pushing Walmart
Since buying Jet.com for the flow of merchandise, it's facing stiffer competi- and others to speed up
more than $3 billion two our pricing are feeling bet- tion from Amazon as well as checkout, a source of frus-
years ago, Walmart has ter than it was a year ago."
been expanding its on- Walmart, based in Benton-
line business by acquiring ville, Arkansas, is promising
brands and adding thou- more to come. Under Fo-
sands of items. It's also ran, Walmart is creating a
been ramping up grocery tech-powered shopping
delivery and pickup op- experience at its stores,
tions. Grocery pickup is while transforming them
now offered at nearly 2,100 into efficient distribution
of its 4,700 U.S. stores, while hubs that can fill online or-
grocery delivery is avail- ders to reduce shipping
able in nearly 600 loca- costs and speed up deliv-
tions. Walmart has also re- eries. To do that, Walmart is
vamped its website with a doing more extensive train-