The nation's largest retailer keeps working to make headway against the largest online seller.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. drew more shoppers to its namesake stores in the United States and its online sales soared 29% in its fiscal fourth quarter, which covers the crucial holiday shopping season. That's an indication that its efforts to lower prices and improve Web services are helping it compete better against Amazon.com Inc., which has built fierce loyalty with its Prime two-day shipping program.
Like other traditional retailers, Wal-Mart has been trying to improve its online operations to challenge Amazon, which accounted for 33% of total U.S. online sales last year, according to the research firm Euromonitor. Wal-Mart moved into second place last year ahead of EBay Inc., accounting for 7.8% of online sales, up from 7.4% in 2015. Still, Wal-Mart's online sales account for only about 3% of its global sales, or about $14 billion. That compares with $94 billion in global net product sales for Amazon.com.
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