Full-year sales and operating income guidance raised
Walmart reported a strong quarter with broad-based market share gains and raised its full-year guidance for sales and operating income. Management expressed confidence in the holiday season despite a cautious consumer, and highlighted the deepening impact of high-margin alternative revenue streams like advertising and membership fees on the bottom line. Walmart delivered 5.9% constant-currency sales growth and 8% adjusted operating income growth, beating expectations and prompting a raise to full-year revenue and operating income guidance.
Buzzberg readFull-year sales and operating income guidance raisedWalmart reported a strong quarter with broad-based market share gains and raised its full-year guidance for sales and operating income. Management expressed confidence in the holiday season despite a cautious consumer, and highlighted the deepening impact of high-margin alternative revenue streams like advertising and membership fees on the bottom line. Walmart delivered 5.9% constant-currency sales growth and 8% adjusted operating income growth, beating expectations and prompting a raise to full-year revenue and operating income guidance.Read full analysisCollapse analysis
Walmart reported a strong quarter with broad-based market share gains and raised its full-year guidance for sales and operating income. Management expressed confidence in the holiday season despite a cautious consumer, and highlighted the deepening impact of high-margin alternative revenue streams like advertising and membership fees on the bottom line. Walmart delivered 5.9% constant-currency sales growth and 8% adjusted operating income growth, beating expectations and prompting a raise to full-year revenue and operating income guidance.
High-margin businesses are scaling rapidly: advertising grew 53% (incl. Vizio) and membership income grew 17%, now contributing ~1/3 of adjusted operating income.
E-commerce momentum remains robust (27% growth globally), with Walmart's improved delivery speed (35% of orders under 3 hours) driving share gains, particularly in general merchandise.
Executives noted a 'pocket of moderation' in low-income consumer spending, but indicated higher-income households are taking share, providing a net positive mix for the company.
Revenue$179.496B
reported
EPS$0.62
reported
Gross margin24.95%
reported
Op margin3.73%
reported
What changed this quarter
01
Guidance
Full-year sales and operating income guidance raised
Guidance · revenue to 4.95%
02
E-commerce
E-commerce growth remains consistently above 20%
Walmart delivered 5.9% constant-currency sales growth and 8% adjusted operating income growth, beating expectations and prompting a raise to full-year revenue and operating income guidance.
03
Margins
Advertising plus membership now one-third of operating income
Reported gross margin was 24.95%, reinforcing the quarter's better-than-guided profitability.
04
AI
OpenAI partnership enables shopping directly through ChatGPT
Management framed AI as a growth and efficiency multiplier: a new OpenAI/ChatGPT commerce partnership, an in-app digital agent called Sparky, and more than 40% of new code now AI-generated or AI-assisted. They see agentic AI as enabling personalized, conversational, contextual…
AI, capex & demand read
AI
Platform & monetization
Management framed AI as a growth and efficiency multiplier: a new OpenAI/ChatGPT commerce partnership, an in-app digital agent called Sparky, and more than 40% of new code now AI-generated or AI-assisted. They see agentic AI as enabling personalized, conversational, contextual shopping and lower cost-to-serve, positioning Walmart to compete across every shopping channel.
Demand
Bookings & conversion
Low-income cohort shows spending moderation. Management raised full-year guidance, cited consistent momentum and broad share gains, and expressed strong optimism about holiday and AI-driven growth, while acknowledging some low-income spending moderation.
Capex
Investment and capacity
No headline capex number, but the tone is continued investment in supply-chain automation and store remodels while staying disciplined on capital and ROI. They highlighted that more than half of e-commerce fulfillment center volume is now automated and store remodels remain on a roughly seven-year cycle.
Tone · Upbeat
Management raised full-year guidance, cited consistent momentum and broad share gains, and expressed strong optimism about holiday and AI-driven growth, while acknowledging some low-income spending moderation.
Supply-chain alpha
A1
The combination of advertising and membership fee income now represents one-third of Walmart's adjusted operating income, highlighting the company's transformation into a higher-margin, diversified business.
“This quarter, the combination of advertising and membership fee income represented approximately one third of our consolidated adjusted operating income.”
Walmart is leveraging its Spark driver platform for Sam's Club delivery, accelerating delivery speed and driving triple-digit growth in club-fulfilled delivery.
“We've accelerated the speed of delivery by leveraging Walmart's Spark driver platform to pick and fulfill delivery orders. These actions have contributed to stronger e-commerce sales and improved average delivery times.”
Walmart's low-income customer cohort is showing signs of modesty in spending, a leading indicator of consumer stress at the bottom of the income scale.
Vizio's integration is contributing to Walmart's advertising growth, but the incrementality and profitability of Vizio's ad business remains a watch item.
“Globally, advertising grew 53%, including Vizio, and membership income was up 17%.”
… strength across income cohorts and especially with higher-income households. It's great to see the positive general merchandise sales across the company, and I'm excited about what we're seeing with our fashion categories in Walmart US in particular. E-commerce was a highlight again in Q3, up 27% in total. Each segment delivered growth in e-commerce above 20%. The way we're driving growth on the top line is helping us strengthen and differentiate our bottom line. Globally, advertising grew 53%, including Vizio, and membership income was up 17%. Let's talk about each segment. I'll start with international, which continues to lift the growth rate for the company. International drove the strongest performance with a sales increase of 11.4% in constant currency and adjusted operating income grew 16.9%. We continue to benefit from business mix changes and lower losses in e-commerce. Transaction counts and unit volumes are up across markets and we're gaining market share. E-commerce sales for international were up 26%. That included our Flipkart team in India executing a record big billion days event. Almost a third of our business outside the US is digital, with e-commerce in China at …
OPENAI
Private company
Partners
The partnership is a strategic move to embed Walmart's commerce into an AI-native interface, positioning OpenAI as a key distribution channel for Walmart's e-commerce.
“Our recent announcement with OpenAI is an example. This new partnership will allow customers and members to purchase items from Walmart and Sam's Club directly through ChatGPT.”
… still be present, but in a more contextual and helpful way, surfacing as recommendations or sponsored bundles that add value. There'll be attention capture and decision influence through data. And three, the new experience will be contextual, understanding customer intent and anticipating needs to save them time. As we think about new tech products and capabilities, sometimes we build our own tech and sometimes we partner. Our recent announcement with OpenAI is an example. This new partnership will allow customers and members to purchase items from Walmart and Sam's Club directly through ChatGPT. This starts relatively simplistically with the checkout process. It'll become more immersive, integrated, and seamlessly connected experiences that bring Walmart closer to customers in new ways. We're adopting artificial intelligence and its various forms across the company. Take software development, for example. When AI is used for software development, more than 40% of the new code is either AI-generated or AI-assisted. We're helping our associates build the skills they'll need to thrive in an AI-powered workplace through things like embracing OpenAI certifications and rolling out …
Walmart's low-income customer cohort is showing signs of modesty in spending, a leading indicator of consumer stress at the bottom of the income scale. — This signals that the lowest-income US consumer is pulling back, which could lead to increased price competition and pressure for dollar stores and other mass retailers serving that demographic.
Thank you. And Doug and John, I just want to echo that. the comments from my colleagues and add my congratulations to both of you. I think we've all learned a lot from your leadership, Doug. My question and more observation, I guess, is just how incredibly consistent so many of the key metrics are really across the board. And I think it's just particularly notable at a time when there are more complaints about the U.S. consumer signs of pockets of weakness. And so I was wondering if you could just maybe talk a little bit about how much month to month volatility you're seeing, if there's any signs of trade down or changes of behavior underneath the hood. And if you can add to that, how much…
Management answer
John David RaineyExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Walmart Inc.
Kelly, this is John David. I'll hit on that and maybe start with the last point. I think the team here feels really good about where our relative price gaps are right now and the value that we're providing to our customers and members. We have over 7,000 rollbacks in place in Walmart U.S. John talked about the value of a basket of items for a Thanksgiving dinner and how that compares to prior years. I think we're feeling really good about this, and we're seeing that customers are moving their business to companies that provide that value with that convenience. In terms of the month-to-month volatility in the business, the quarter was actually quite consistent. When we look across the entire business, there wasn't necessarily one month that was an outlier. There are pockets of moderation when we look by income cohort, and I don't want to – sound alarmist in any way here, because again, overall, the business is very consistent and that's our outlook into the fourth quarter. But when we look by low income cohort versus middle versus higher income, we have seen some moderation in spending in the low-income cohort. And that's consistent with things you've seen from a macro perspective. In October, the disparity in wage growth between those cohorts was as large as it's been in almost a decade. And so we're seeing the same things that others are, and we're keeping a watchful eye on it. But again, I think Walmart is better insulated than just about anybody, given the value proposition that we have. If pocketbooks are being stretched and consumers are being choiceful and value seeking, it stands to reason if there's more pressure on the consumer, they're only going to become more so. And so we like the value proposition that we're offering for our customers. And you see, that's why we're gaining share.
The combination of advertising and membership fee income now represents one-third of Walmart's adjusted operating income, highlighting the company's transformation into a higher-margin, diversified business. — This structural shift in profit mix suggests Walmart can sustain faster profit growth than sales without relying on retail margin expansion, challenging pure-play e-commerce and club competitors.
John David RaineyExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Walmart Inc.
… category mix in Walmart U.S. remains a headwind as sales growth in grocery and health and wellness outpaced general merchandise. Across the enterprise, our business model continues to evolve with operating income increasingly influenced by improved e-commerce economics, particularly in Walmart US and Flipkart, with growing contributions from business mix, most notably in higher margin areas like advertising and membership fees. This quarter, the combination of advertising and membership fee income represented approximately one third of our consolidated adjusted operating income. With continued strong momentum in e-commerce, our advertising business globally increased 53%, including Vizio. Walmart Connect in the U.S., ex-Vizio, grew 33% as we continued to grow advertiser counts, including through our third-party marketplace. We also saw 34% growth in international advertising, led by Flipkart. Membership income increased 17% across the enterprise, led by 34% growth in international, primarily due to Sam's Club China. In the U.S., Walmart Plus membership income continued to grow at double-digit pace. Across all income cohorts, we saw membership income growth accelerate, with …
Walmart is leveraging its Spark driver platform for Sam's Club delivery, accelerating delivery speed and driving triple-digit growth in club-fulfilled delivery. — By internalizing last-mile logistics via Spark, Walmart is reducing reliance on third-party delivery providers, potentially pressuring gig-economy platforms that depend on retail partnerships.
John David RaineyExecutive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Walmart Inc.
… Go, as well as through the convenience of curbside pickup and delivery options. Member adoption of Scan and Go reached 36% in Q3, an increase of 450 basis points versus last year, and club-fulfilled delivery grew triple digits again this quarter. The SAMS team continues to enhance member benefits related to e-commerce. Curbside pickup is now free for all members with no minimum purchase requirements. And we've accelerated the speed of delivery by leveraging Walmart's Spark driver platform to pick and fulfill delivery orders. These actions have contributed to stronger e-commerce sales and improved average delivery times. Consolidated gross profit was relatively flat year over year. Walmart U.S. increased 19 basis points as a result of disciplined inventory management and favorable business mix. This was offset by pressure in the international segment from channel and format mix, due in part to Flipkart's BBD event, as well as ongoing price investments in Mexico. Merchandise category mix in Walmart U.S. remains a headwind as sales growth in grocery and health and wellness outpaced general merchandise. Across the enterprise, our business model continues to evolve with operating …
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