Walmart expects Flipkart's BBD sales to lift up Q4 earnings

US-headquartered retail giant Walmart Inc reported a positive impact on its gross profit rate riding on ecommerce platform Flipkart's annual The Big Billion Days (BBD) sale event and improvement in Walmart US for the third quarter of FY24. This also impacted the overall ecommerce sales growth for Walmart for the quarter. 

The impact of the festive sales on Flipkart held between October 8-15, 2023 will be fully captured in the next quarter as the event moved from Q3 last year to Q4 in the current year. This has affected the year-on-year comparison for international business with ecommerce sales down by 3% for Walmart’s international business, while advertising grew by 4%. 

“We expect the timing of the BBD to benefit Q4 growth. We expect PhonePe to continue strong momentum. It recently reached a Total Payment Value of $1.2 trillion and 5.8 billion monthly transactions. Recently, PhonePe also reached a milestone of over 500 million registered users,” said John David Rainey, Executive Vice President and CFO at Walmart, during the company’s earnings call.

Walmart posted a net income of $453 million for Q3 FY24 compared to a loss of $1.8 billion in the comparable quarter from a year ago due to a settlement of opioid-related legal charges. The company reported revenue growth of 5.2% year-on-year with consolidated revenue growing to $160.8 billion for the quarter. 

Walmart International's net sales grew by 5.4% year-on-year at $26.7 billion, riding on Walmex and Walmart’s growth in China. Walmart Inc's global advertising business grew approximately 20% riding on Sam’s Club MAP and Walmart Connect. The dates of BBD also impacted the growth in global advertising revenues. 

The company has revised its net sales guidance for FY24 to 5.0% to 5.5%, with an adjusted Earnings Per Share between $6.40 to $6.48 per share. 

Walmart shares dropped by 6.3% at $168.72 per share at the start of Thursday’s trade from the previous close of $169.77 per share.