walmart vs costco comparable sles

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I have great comparable sales data. Note that Walmart's fiscal year ends January 31, while Costco's ends August 31. Let me also pull an extra historical year for a longer trend.

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Walmart vs Costco Comparable Sales Comparison

Note: Walmart's fiscal year ends January 31; Costco's fiscal year ends late August/early September. The latest comparable figures are from each company's most recently completed fiscal year.

Total Company Comparable Sales Growth (%)

Fiscal Year Walmart (U.S. Total) Costco (Total Company)
FY22 (WMT: Jan-22 / COST: Aug-22) 7.7% 14.0%
FY23 (WMT: Jan-23 / COST: Aug-23) 8.2% 3.0%
FY24 (WMT: Jan-24 / COST: Aug-24) 4.9% 5.0%
FY25 (WMT: Jan-25 / COST: Aug-25) 4.8% 6.0%

Latest Year Detail — Walmart FY2025 (FYE Jan-25) vs Costco FY2025 (FYE Aug-25)

Metric Walmart U.S. Walmart Sam's Club Costco U.S. Costco Total Co.
Comp Sales (Reported) 4.8% 4.7% 6.0% 6.0%
Fuel Impact (0.1)% (1.5)% — —
Comp Sales (Ex-FX/Fuel) n/a n/a 7.0% 8.0%
E-commerce Comp Sales 2.9% 2.3% — 16.0%

Key Takeaways

  • Costco accelerated to 6% total company comps in FY25 (from 5% in FY24), while Walmart U.S. comps decelerated modestly to 4.8% (from 5.5%).
  • On an ex-FX/ex-gasoline basis, Costco's underlying comps were even stronger at 8%, signaling healthier core demand than the headline suggests.
  • Walmart U.S. comps are driven by transactions and unit volumes (grocery + health & wellness), while Costco's 6% comp was driven by ~5% shopping frequency + ~1% average ticket.
  • Both retailers' e-commerce comps (WMT U.S. 2.9%, COST 16%) remain a key growth lever, though Costco's digital penetration is far smaller, making the percentage swings larger.
  • Sam's Club (Walmart's warehouse-club competitor to Costco) delivered 4.7% comps with a (1.5)% fuel drag — meaningfully trailing Costco's 6%.

Bottom line: Costco is currently outpacing Walmart on comparable sales growth, with the gap widening on a core (ex-gas/ex-FX) basis.

give ecommerce

I now have enough data. Here's the e-commerce comparison.

Walmart vs Costco — E-commerce Comparison

E-commerce Sales ($B) — Absolute Size

Fiscal Year Walmart U.S. Walmart Sam's Club Walmart International Walmart Total Costco
FY22 47.8 6.9 18.5 73.2 n/a
FY23 53.4 8.4 20.3 82.1 ~6% of total net sales
FY24 65.4 9.9 24.8 100.1 n/a
FY25 n/a 12.1 n/a n/a n/a

Walmart's e-commerce is ~10–15x the absolute size of Costco's.

E-commerce Contribution to Comparable Sales (%)

Fiscal Year Walmart U.S. Sam's Club Costco
FY22 n/a n/a +10%
FY23 0.7% 0.8% (6)%
FY24 2.6% 1.7% +16%
FY25 2.9% 2.3% +16%

Costco E-commerce Comparable Sales (Reported)

FY22 FY23 FY24 FY25
+10% (6)% +16% +16%

Key Takeaways

  • Scale gap is enormous: Walmart U.S. alone generated ~$65B in e-commerce in FY24 — a category Costco has not reached in total.
  • Costco's e-commerce comps swung from (6)% in FY23 to +16% in both FY24 and FY25, reflecting strong digital momentum off a small base (~6% of net sales).
  • Walmart U.S. e-commerce contribution to comp sales has steadily climbed from 0.7% → 2.6% → 2.9% over the last three fiscal years, driven primarily by store-fulfilled pickup and delivery (4,300+ stores leveraged for fulfillment, 30 dedicated e-commerce FCs).
  • Sam's Club e-commerce contribution is smaller in absolute comp impact but growing steadily (0.8% → 1.7% → 2.3%), with curbside pickup as the main lever.
  • Fulfillment infrastructure: Walmart operates ~8,000 pickup locations and ~7,800 delivery locations globally — Costco has no comparable store-based fulfillment network, with e-commerce SKU count of only 9,000–11,000 vs. <4,000 in-warehouse.

Bottom line: Walmart's e-commerce is a massive, scaled business (>$100B total, ~15% of consolidated sales) growing steadily via omni-channel fulfillment, while Costco's e-commerce is a smaller but faster-growing (~+16%) channel constrained by limited SKU breadth and lack of store-based fulfillment.

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