American retailer, the largest company in the world by both revenue ($680bn in 2024) and number of employees (2.1m). Founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, a self-described penny-pincher from Arkansas. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.
In America Walmart takes in a tenth of all retail spending, excluding cars, and a quarter of grocery spending. It has some 5,000 stores across the country; 90% of Americans live within ten miles of one. Its market capitalisation exceeded $750bn in mid-2025 and had soared to nearly $1trn by the end of the year, at nearly 40 times earnings—a higher multiple than Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta or Microsoft. Groceries account for three-fifths of its American sales. Research by JPMorgan Chase suggests Walmart is typically 4-5% cheaper than Target and 8-10% cheaper than other grocers. Suppliers including Nestlé, PepsiCo and Unilever have set up offices next door to Walmart's headquarters in Bentonville; Walmart has no similar outposts in their hometowns.
Under Doug McMillon, who became chief executive just over a decade ago, Walmart has transformed from a bricks-and-mortar retailer into a tech-driven company. Dan Bartlett, its corporate-affairs chief, concedes the firm "missed the first wave of e-commerce" around the turn of the millennium. McMillon put Walmart's physical infrastructure to work as distribution hubs for online orders. Supercentres stock an average of 120,000 discrete products.
Walmart's American e-commerce unit made over $100bn in sales in 2024, according to eMarketer. Although a distant second to Amazon ($480bn in American e-commerce sales in 2024), its online sales are growing at around 20% a year, twice Amazon's rate. It leads in grocery deliveries. Its third-party marketplace, much like Amazon's, has expanded Walmart's online range to hundreds of millions of products. Morgan Stanley reckons Walmart takes 12% of third-party sales plus an average 8% for storage, packing and delivery.
Walmart+, an Amazon-Prime-like membership programme, provides perks including free delivery for $8.17 per month. Combined with Sam's Club, its answer to Costco's members-only stores, Walmart made $3.8bn from membership programmes in 2024, double the figure five years earlier.
Its advertising unit generated $4.4bn in revenue in 2024, up almost 30% year on year. With operating margins around 70%, Morgan Stanley reckons ad sales made up 10% of Walmart's operating profit in 2024 and will account for 16% by 2027. Walmart has lined its shops with screens playing ads, plastered its app with them, and acquired Vizio, a maker of smart televisions, to show viewers ads on TV. Suresh Kumar is the firm's chief technologist.
Capital expenditure has doubled since 2019, reaching $24bn in 2024, equivalent to two-thirds of operating cashflow. Warehouses are filled with conveyor belts, robotic arms and AI tools that optimise pallet loading. The firm is training Sparky, an AI assistant for customers, and Wally, which helps merchandising teams choose items to sell. In October 2025 Walmart announced that its products would soon be available to purchase directly through ChatGPT, helping it reach customers it otherwise would not have. Analysts at Mizuho, a bank, reckon that 4% of visits to Walmart's website come from referrals, of which ChatGPT provides a third. Doug McMillon, Walmart's outgoing chief executive, has acknowledged that online shopping needs to move beyond "a search bar" and "a long list".
Walmart de México is the most-valuable firm on the local stockmarket. In China a Sam's Club membership is seen as a ticket to the aspirational middle class. In both countries Walmart is considered more premium than it is at home. In India it majority-owns Flipkart, an online marketplace, and PhonePe, a payments app. In 2021 it sold off businesses in Argentina, Britain and Japan. It expects to double its international division's sales and operating profit between 2024 and 2028.
Roughly a third of products sold in America are made or grown abroad, largely in China, Mexico or Canada. Walmart has been diversifying away from China, sourcing more from India. Bernstein estimated new tariff duties would raise Walmart's product costs by an average of 5.2%, with suppliers absorbing half. McMillon attended Trump's inauguration in January 2025 and visited him at Mar-a-Lago and the White House. In November 2024 Walmart rolled back some diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
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