Walmart&#039;s online sales soar

Walmart. which has been busy adding partners and perks to bolster its e-commerce business to better take on Amazon, saw online sales soar in the most recent quarter.

The nation's biggest retailer reported a 50% increase in online sales during the quarter.

It also continued to outpace many of its brick and mortar peers with increased sales, traffic and revenue during the three month period that ended October 31.

The company has been revamping its stores, and honing its customer service, changes that seems to be paying of as sales at stores in the U.S. open at least a year, a key industry measure of financial performance, rose 2.7%, in the last quarter. Traffic, which has been falling off at many retailers as more consumers shop online, saw a 1.5% uptick in the U.S.

"We have momentum,'' Doug McMillon, Walmart's president and CEO said in a statement, "and it's encouraging to see customers responding to our store and eCommerce initiatives.''

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Walmart is doing what their competitor Amazon can't do, throw holiday parties. Buzz60

Its $1 in adjusted earnings per share was three cents higher than what S&P Global analysts had expected.

Total revenue was $123.2 billion, an increase of $5.0 billion, or 4.2%.

Walmart is abolishing those dreaded return lines by making consumers a 30-second return promise. Buzz60

The retailer has been shaping up as one of the key competitors to online giant Amazon, buying online marketplace Jet, and niche sites like menswear retailer Bonobos to attract a more affluent, fashion-conscious shopper.

Walmart's tripled the number of items available at its e-commerce site, and earlier this week, it announced that it will partner with upscale retailer Lord & Taylor to feature a branded shop on Walmart.com starting next Spring.

In the meantime, Walmart has also been making the most of its fleet of over 4,700 U.S. stores. It offers discounts to customers who pick up purchases they've made online, and is expanding the ability to retrieve online grocery orders to an additional 1,000 locations next year.

Earlier this month, Walmart launched a speedier returns process that starts with a few clicks of its app and ends with a designated line at a local store. And it's paying some employees extra if they drop off orders at destinations along their routes home in a test service that may eventually expand.

Shoppers may also head to stores because some items are cheaper to buy there than online --, a difference that Walmart.com displays by putting the dueling prices side by side.

"There are lots of cases where it’s just cheaper to sell products out of a store,’’ Marc Lore, president and CEO of Walmart eCommerce U.S. said in a call with media Thursday. Showing the two prices is a way to be "transparent'' he said, and that “there are different ways to get products and there are different costs associated with that.’’

In its pursuit of a more affluent shopper, company officials say the same day delivery currently available at twenty stores, Jet.com's focus on urban millennials, and Walmart's growing grocery offering are all key.

“I still think that there is an opportunity in front of us in terms of stores,’’ Walmart U.S. President and CEO Greg Foran said in regard to attracting higher income shoppers. “That’s what you’re starting to see in terms of our marketing, and that is clearly one of our objectives.’’

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