New York (CNN Business) Walmart, America’s largest retailer, reported subpar holiday sales Tuesday, reflecting a weak holiday shopping season for the brick-and-mortar retail industry.
Sales at stores and websites open for at least one year – a key measure of the retailer’s health— increased only 1.9% during its final quarter of . That included a % spike in online sales. Wall Street expected a stronger performance.
“In the few weeks before Christmas, we experienced some softness” in toys, video games and clothing, Walmart chief financial officer Brett Biggs said in a news release. The holiday “was not as good as expected,” he said.
The shorter holiday season last year also contributed to the slowdown, according to Walmart. There were six fewer days this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas than last year.
The company missed Wall Street’s expectations for sales and profit, sending shares of Walmart (
- WMT down slightly in pre-market trading. Heading into Tuesday, Walmart’s stock has rallied % over the past 17 months.
Walmart and Target (
- (TGT )
have been two of the strongest traditional retailers in recent years, weathering the rise of Amazon (
- (AMZN
- ) and the shift to online shopping that has upended the retail industry.
But like Walmart, Target also had a disappointing holiday.
Other retailers struggled during the holidays, including Macy’s
(
- M
, Kohl’s ( KSS and Bed Bath & Beyond ( BBBY Macy’s last week announced it will close 169 stores over the next three years – nearly one fifth of its total locations – and lay off 12% of its corporate staff. Costco ( COST and TJMaxx parent (TJX) ( TJX ) were two outliers in the retail industry, reporting robust holiday sales.
Amazon also had a blowout holiday stretch and announced a record million people now subscribe to its Prime membership program.
(Strength in grocery)
In recent years, Walmart has leaned on its network of more than 4, 700 stores across the country to draw middle-and lower-income shoppers. Walmart has remodeled stores and lowered prices.
It has also invested in reaching wealthier shoppers online to compete with Amazon.
despite a weak season for toys and clothes, Walmart said that groceries, its largest business, performed well over the holidays.
Walmart has rapidly built out an online grocery pickup and delivery infrastructure, an advantage over Amazon, which owns around Whole Foods stores, and rival retailers that don’t sell groceries.
Walmart ended the year with around 3, (grocery pickup locations and more than 1, 780 delivery locations. The company plans to continue expanding this year.
Walmart on Tuesday said that it expected a strong .
Some companies, including Under Armor (
- (UA
- Nike
- ( (NKE
- )
- )
Walmart said it was monitoring the impact from the coronavirus, but did not include Any financial effects from the outbreak in its guidance to investors.
In China, Walmart has around stores. The company has reducing hours at many stores. Chief financial officer Biggs told analysts that “we do anticipate some impact to the China business” in the first quarter of the year.
Biggs said that Walmart was not seeing “major impacts” limiting its ability to source products from China, but warned that could change.
“If there are any longer-term shipping issues, it would likely impact our business,” he said.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings