Overview

Walmart is the world’s largest retailer.

Walmart’s headquarters is in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Business segments and operations

The company has three operating segments:

• Walmart U.S.
• Walmart International
• Sam’s Club
 
See more: Walmart’s operating segments

Marketing spending

Worldwide ad spending: 
Total worldwide advertising spending figures shown in the Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers report are Walmart’s stated worldwide “advertising costs.”
 
Walmart disclosed worldwide advertising costs of $4.4 billion in the year ended January 2024 (fiscal 2024), up 7.3% from $4.1 billion in the year ended January 2023 (fiscal 2023).
 
Ad spending in fiscal 2024 was an all-time high for Walmart.
 
U.S. ad spending: 
Total U.S. advertising spending figures shown in the Ad Age Leading National Advertisers report are Ad Age Datacenter estimates.

Links to Ad Age’s advertiser rankings

Latest rankings: U.S.

The Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Oct. 28, 2024.

Past rankings: U.S.

Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2023
Ad Age Leading National Advertisers 2022

Latest rankings: worldwide

The Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2024 ranking was released Dec. 9, 2024.

Past rankings: worldwide

Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2023
Ad Age World’s Largest Advertisers 2022

Financial results

See more: Walmart financial results
 
Read Walmart’s annual filing

Rankings

Walmart ranked as the world’s largest retailer in the Top 250 ranking based on fiscal 2021 sales in Deloitte’s Global Powers of Retailing 2023 report.

Walmart in December 2024 bought Vizio Holding Corp. for about $2.3 billion. Vizio, founded in 2002 and based in Irvine, California, markets TV sets and developed SmartCast, a smart TV operating system. The deal was announced in February 2024.

A March 2024 Vizio regulatory filing said: “Walmart and its affiliated retailers"—implying Walmart and Sam's Club—“are Vizio’s largest customer and have been since 2008.” Vizio’s annual regulatory filing in February 2024 showed that its largest customer and its affiliated retailers—implying Walmart and Sam's Club—accounted for 45% of net revenue in 2023, 51% in 2022 and 52% in 2021.

Walmart in 2023 sold three retail ventures—Bonobos, Eloquii and Moosejaw—as it pulled back from an earlier e-commerce diversification.

Walmart in May 2023 sold U.S. apparel marketer Bonobos to brand management firm WHP Global and retailer Express for a combined purchase price of $75 million.

WHP bought the Bonobos brand for $50 million; Express bought the operating assets and assumed the related liabilities of the Bonobos business for $25 million. Express entered a license agreement with WHP giving Express an exclusive U.S. license for the Bonobos brand. 

Express filed for bankruptcy reorganization in April 2024. Phoenix Retail, a group led by WHP, acquired Express out of bankruptcy in June 2024.

Walmart bought Bonobos in 2017 for $310 million. 

Walmart in April 2023 sold Eloquii, an apparel brand for plus-size women, to FullBeauty Brands. Walmart bought Eloquii in 2018.

Walmart in March 2023 sold Moosejaw, an online specialty outdoor products retailer, to Dick’s Sporting Goods. Walmart bought Moosejaw in 2017.

Walmart in March 2021 sold Seiyu, its retail business in Japan, for $1.2 billion. Walmart kept a 15% stake. Walmart bought Seiyu in a series of transactions from 2002 to 2008.

Walmart in February 2021 sold Asda, its retail business in the U.K., for $9.6 billion. Walmart bought Asda in 1999.

Walmart in January 2021 sold Shoes.com, an online shoe retailer, to buyout firm CriticalPoint Capital. Walmart in December 2016 bought Shoebuy, an online shoe retailer, from IAC for about $70 million. Shoebuy was founded in 1999 and acquired by IAC in 2006. Shoebuy in 2017 rebranded as Shoes.com.

Walmart in summer 2020 sold Bare Necessities, an online retailer of intimate apparel, to Delta Galil Industries, a global manufacturer and marketer of branded and private label apparel. Walmart bought Bare Necessities in October 2018. Bare Necessities was founded in 1998.

Walmart in May 2020 said it was shuttering Jet.com, an online retail business. In announcing the move, Walmart said: “Due to continued strength of the Walmart.com brand, the company will discontinue Jet.com. The acquisition of Jet.com nearly four years ago was critical to accelerating our omni strategy.” Walmart in September 2016 bought Jet.com for $2.4 billion, net of cash acquired; as part of the transaction, Walmart agreed to pay additional compensation of about $800 million over a five-year period.

Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, through its Fandango unit, in April 2020 purchased Vudu from Walmart. Vudu, acquired by Walmart in 2010, lets consumers watch movies delivered over broadband.

Walmart in October 2019 sold ModCloth, an online retailer of trendy hipster clothing, to Go Global Retail. Walmart bought ModCloth in 2017.

Walmart in early 2019 bought Art.com, an online retailer of art and wall decor.

The company in August 2018 made a further investment of about $320 million in Dada-JD Daojia, an on-demand logistics platform and online-to-offline e-commerce platform in China. This followed an initial $50 million investment in Dada-JD Daojia in October 2016. The 2018 investment boosted Walmart’s ownership stake to 10%.

Walmart in August 2018 sold an 80% stake in Walmart Brazil to Advent International, a buyout firm.
 
Walmart in August 2018 bought an approximately 77% stake in Flipkart, an e-commerce retailer in India, for $16 billion. Existing Flipkart shareholders, including Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, Tencent Holdings, Tiger Global Management and Microsoft Corp., owned the rest. Flipkart was founded in 2007.

Walmart in April 2017 sold Suburbia, an apparel retailer in Mexico, for $1.0 billion.

Walmart in June 2016 entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with JD.com, an online retailer in China. As of March 2024, Walmart owned a 9.4% stake in JD.

Management and employees

Doug McMillon is Walmart’s president and CEO. McMillon began his Walmart career in 1984 as an hourly employee, picking orders and unloading trailers in a warehouse. He became CEO in 2014.

See more: Walmart management

See more: Walmart careers

Stock

Walmart trades on the New York Stock Exchange. Ticker: WMT

Walmart’s roots date to 1945, when Sam Walton opened a franchised Ben Franklin variety store in Newport, Arkansas.

Sam Walton later closed the Newport store and opened a Ben Franklin store in Bentonville, Arkansas, that he called Walton’s Five and Dime. Bentonville to this day remains the company’s headquarters.

Walton opened the first “Wal-Mart Discount City,” a discount store, in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas.

Wal-Mart Stores incorporated in 1969.

The company opened its first Sam’s Club membership warehouses in 1984.

Walmart opened its first supercenter (supermarket, electronics, apparel, toys and home furnishings) in 1988 and the first Neighborhood Market (smaller stores) in 1998.

Walmart expanded abroad for the first time in fiscal 1992, when it began a 50/50 joint venture in Mexico with Mexican firm Cifra. Walmart in 1998 acquired controlling interest in Cifra. In February 2000, Cifra changed its name to Wal-Mart de Mexico.

Sam Walton died in 1992.

Wal-Mart Stores in 2008 gave its flagship unit an updated logo and changed the store name to “Walmart” from “Wal-Mart.”

“Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.” in 2018 changed its legal name to “Walmart Inc.”

See more: Walmart history