Wal-Mart Sees Decline in Online Sales Growth as Amazon's Online Sales Increase

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. WMT shares were dropping in premarket action after missing revenue consensus and lowering sales guidance for the first quarter of 2016. However, the company also saw a slump in e-commerce growth from the third to fourth quarters, which could seem unusual in a holiday season. It might also worry investors who see Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN's command of the online sales market as Wal-Mart's main competition. Wal-Mart reported e-commerce growth of 10 percent in the third quarter of 2015, but online sales only grew 8 percent in the fourth quarter. In a fourth-quarter report released January 28, Amazon reported a net sales increase of 28 percent. Considering the fact that all of Amazon's sales are online, these reports reinforce Amazon's e-commerce dominance as Wal-Mart struggles to claim internet sales territory from the online retailer. Benzinga reached out to a variety of e-commerce analysts for comment and had not received any at press time. Wal-Mart did not immediately respond to request for comment. Wal-Mart shares were down a little less than 5 percent before open Thursday. Amazon was trending up a little more than 2 percent. Amazon shares are worth more than eight times as much as Wal-Mart's.