Walmart’s 29% Online Holiday Season Growth Sends Shares Jumping

Walmart shares rose 3% on Tuesday after the discount retailer reported its 10th straight quarter of rising comparable U.S. sales, fueled by major gains in its online business. The world’s largest retailer has invested billions into giving workers raises and more sophisticated technology tools as well as to vastly expand and improve its online offering to begin to narrow the large chasm with Amazon.com. And it has been paying off: Walmart U.S., a retailer with some $308 billion a year in sales, reported comparable sales rose 1.8% during the holiday season quarter, above the 1.3% Wall Street was expecting, according to Consensus Metrix. Walmart U.S. expects that streak to continue in the current quarter. What’s more, shopper traffic was up again, a notable achievement given the challenges faced by rivals from Target to Macy’s to get people to come into stores over the holidays. And arguably more importantly, e-commerce growth rose 29% as Walmart began to reap the benefits of its $3 billion acquisition last year of jet.com, as well as of a massive overhaul of its marketplaces. Walmart’s website now offers some 35 million different kinds of items, a fraction of Amazon’s assortment, but more than four times what it had a year ago. Read more at Fortune.