Walmart's online traffic is "declining", while offline traffic continues to grow

Walmart's daily website visits were down about 8% year-over-year as of November, according to data from Similarweb, while its average daily in-store traffic increased by about 1%, according to estimates from Placer.ai.

Online decline, offline strength

According to Similarweb, a little over 14 million people visit walmart.com each day so far this year, down from averages of about 15.3 million in 2021 and 15.6 million in 2020. Of course, as COVID-19 changed shopping trends, walmart.com traffic in 2020 was up 46% from the year before.

In addition to online traffic returning to pre-pandemic trends, Walmart's offline store traffic is growing. According to estimates by location data company Placer.ai, as of December 4, the average daily number of shoppers in Walmart stores increased by 1% compared with the same period last year.

Brian Yarbrough, an analyst at Edward Jones, said the change in shopping behavior reflects consumers' reduced fear of the coronavirus and their search for lower prices amid inflationary pressures.

Yarbrough pointed out that due to inflation, American consumers are buying more necessities and mostly buying more affordable grocery items in stores. Food has been the fastest growing part of Walmart's business in the past few quarters, with Walmart's U.S. food sales increasing by about 14% year-on-year in the most recent quarter.

Demand for online grocery shopping drops

Walmart is the largest grocer in the U.S. It accounted for a quarter of all sales in 2021, according to Euromonitor. That's more than three times the total of its closest competitor, Kroger. It's also one of the most popular online grocery shopping destinations, along with Amazon, according to Coresight's "2022 U.S. Online Grocery Survey" report.

But like its competitors, Walmart.com has seen a significant drop in demand for groceries online compared to the pandemic. Among all U.S. grocers, online sales fell 10% year-on-year to $7.7 billion in November.

Consumers are buying groceries and other consumer goods from higher-priced stores, which is leading to higher traffic at Walmart and Dollar General, Jefferies analyst Corey Tarlowe wrote in a research note on Tuesday.

Walmart is still trying to boost its e-commerce business despite the drop in online traffic. It has been trying to attract third-party sellers to its platform with new tools and features, and has made a big push to get customers and employees to sign up for Walmart+, the retailer's answer to Amazon Prime. The membership platform launched in 2020 stimulates online shopping by offering free shipping.

While Walmart may not see the record 97% year-over-year e-commerce growth it saw in the second quarter of 2020, Yarbrough said he still expects online shopping to "surpass" in-store shopping in the coming years.

Editor✎ Ashley/

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