Walmart's e-commerce bet under McMillon grew 12-fold to $121 billion
Doug McMillon's decade: net sales up 43%, e-commerce from $10 billion to $121 billion, and 60% of capex redirected to tech and supply chain.
What was changed
When Doug McMillon became CEO in 2014, the company was still legally Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.: about $473 billion in net sales, $16.7 billion in net income, 2.2 million associates, 10,942 stores and 250 million weekly customers in stores. E-commerce, including acquisitions, totaled just over $10 billion, and most capital expenditure still went to opening, expanding or relocating stores — with about $2.5 billion going to 'information systems, distribution, e-commerce and other.'
The reallocation was the strategy. McMillon's shareholder letter promised to 'increase our investment as e-commerce opportunities present themselves.' Over the decade Walmart unified its digital app suite, debuted the Walmart+ paid membership, and invested heavily in distribution-center automation. By fiscal 2025 the company was spending about $14.6 billion — roughly 60% of total capex — on 'supply chain, customer-facing initiatives, technology and other.'
The results per the 2025 annual report: net sales up about 43% and consolidated net income up 21% over the decade; e-commerce reached $121 billion, a 1,110% increase from 2014; weekly customers across the business hit about 270 million, with 2.1 million associates and 10,771 stores. McMillon handed the CEO seat to company veteran John Furner, who framed the next era around AI at January's NRF Big Show.
Why it worked
McMillon inherited a store-count business in an industry going digital, and redirected capex toward technology, supply chain and e-commerce.
The shift was physical as much as digital: distribution-center automation and pickup-and-delivery infrastructure preceded the sales curve.
Walmart+ and a unified app suite turned a mass retailer's footprint into a recurring digital relationship rather than a weekly trip.
The physical network became the asset: stores doubled as fulfillment nodes instead of competing with e-commerce.
What can be applied
A legacy giant's pivot is a decade of reallocation, not a rebrand: move the capex first — 60% to tech and supply chain — and the P&L follows.
Aftermath
McMillon retired with the transformation, in his words, fully embedded in each business; analysts at TD Cowen called his 'expensive but essential commitments to tech innovation' the paying-off core of the decade. Furner now leads the retailer into what both frame as an AI era.