Walmart reports its slowest sales growth in years, spurring a sharp stock drop

Walmart said its sales growth is running at the weakest pace it has shown in years, a shift that rattled investors and drove its stock down sharply in early trading. Shares fell more than 6% in premarket moves after investors focused on the slower momentum in the retailer’s broader top-line growth.

The company’s report points to a split in where demand is coming from. While Walmart’s overall sales growth is weakening, the retailer’s performance continues to be supported by segments beyond its traditional store footprint, including e-commerce, membership-related revenue and advertising.

E-commerce remains a key driver for Walmart’s growth profile, reflecting how consumers increasingly buy groceries and other essentials through digital channels rather than in-store trips. Walmart has also leaned into membership programs, which bundle benefits and can support recurring spending from households that subscribe for perks and special access.

Advertising is another line Walmart highlights as part of its growth engine. Retail advertising, often sold to brands seeking to reach shoppers at the point of consideration, can add revenue and help retailers diversify away from pure discounting, even as consumer spending remains pressured at times.

Still, investors appear to have concentrated on the “engine” for sales growth that has historically relied more heavily on stores. Walmart’s new pace, described as the slowest sales growth in years, suggests the magnitude of contribution from in-store operations is not matching prior periods, even if other segments are carrying some weight.

For the broader retail sector, the episode underscores a recurring challenge facing large chains: maintaining growth when store traffic is harder to grow and consumers are more selective. Retailers often offset pressure through faster digital growth, higher-margin services, and retail media, but investors typically track whether those efforts can fully compensate for softness elsewhere.

Walmart did not provide, in the cited post, detailed metrics such as the exact sales growth rate, segment-by-segment figures, or an explicit outlook range for the next quarter. It also did not clarify what specific factors weighed on overall sales growth, such as promotional intensity, categories under pressure, or any changes in customer traffic trends.

What to watch next is whether Walmart can stabilize the overall sales growth rate while maintaining strength in e-commerce, membership and advertising. Markets will likely look for additional detail around store performance and for management to explain the drivers behind the year-to-year slowdown, as well as whether the mix shift toward digital and services can broaden into a more durable acceleration.