Walmart, Not Amazon, Was The Retail Disruptor In 2018

Walmart had a monster 2018 holiday shopping season. Though many news outlets fretted over “disappointing” retail sales results, there was no such problem for the king of retail. Comparable sales (which combines foot traffic and average customer ticket size) in the U.S. shot up 4.2% in the final months of 2018, and full-year comps went up 3.6% — adding up to one of the best runs the big-box store has had in quite some time. The biggest story surrounding Walmart’s surge was e-commerce, a pain point over the last decade and long the domain of Amazon.com and other digital-first stores. That has begun to change as of late, though, as Walmart has begun to reap the benefits of investing in digital sales capabilities and started to figure out how best to incorporate its real estate with its online presence. Looking back on the last 12 months’ worth of results, it would appear 2018 will go down as a turning point. Read more at The Motley Fool.