In fiscal 2026 Walmart turned $713.2B of revenue into $29.8B of operating income (4.2%) and $21.9B of net income (3.1%). Revenue has nearly doubled since fiscal 2008, but the operating margin is lower than then (5.8%); it bottomed at 3.3% in fiscal 2023.
Correction (11 Oct 2026): the earlier text said profits “peaked at $16.18 billion in 2015” and that stores “increased from 11,700 in 2018 to 11,400 in 2021”. Walmart’s filings report fiscal 2015 net income of $16.4B, a higher $17.0B in fiscal 2013 and a record $21.9B in fiscal 2026; the store count fell, not rose (FY2021 10-K).
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
Walmart keeps 4.2 cents of every dollar it takes in. Source: Walmart Form 10-K, fiscal 2026 (year to 31 Jan 2026), SEC EDGAR: consolidated statement of income (revenue, cost of sales, operating, selling, general and administrative expenses, operating income, consolidated net income), MD&A (operating income as % of net sales); earlier years from SEC XBRL company facts. Shares calculated. Bars and columns to scale. Analysis by The Business Engineer.
Fiscal year
Revenue
Net income
Op. margin*
FY2026
$713.2B
$21.9B
4.2%
FY2025
$681.0B
$19.4B
4.3%
FY2024
$648.1B
$15.5B
4.2%
FY2023
$611.3B
$11.7B
3.3%
FY2022
$572.8B
$13.7B
4.5%
FY2021
$559.2B
$13.5B
4.0%
FY2020
$524.0B
$14.9B
3.9%
FY2019
$514.4B
$6.7B
4.3%
FY2016
$482.1B
$14.7B
5.0%
FY2013
$468.7B
$17.0B
5.9%
FY2008
$377.0B
$12.7B
5.8%
Source: Walmart 10-K filings via SEC EDGAR XBRL (latest 10-K). *Calculated.
What drives the gap between sales and profit
Price leadership costs margin. Walmart spends most of each sales dollar on goods and operations: cost of sales was $535.4B and operating expenses $147.9B in fiscal 2026 (10-K).
Below the operating line. Net income swings with investment gains and losses: it fell to $6.7B in fiscal 2019 while operating income was $22.0B.
Higher-margin mix. Advertising (+38%) and membership fees (+17%) grew far faster than sales in Q2 fiscal 2027; operating income rose 29% (Q2 fiscal 2027 release).
What to watch
Margin recovery: 4.2% in FY26; each percentage point is worth about $7.1B of operating income.
Q2 FY27 net income was $6.4B vs $7.0B a year earlier, despite higher operating income.
Earlier analysis and background (pre-2026 figures)
The text below is the earlier version of this page. Its figures refer to earlier periods and some were corrected above; the current, sourced figures are in the sections above.
Walmart generated $611.29 billion in revenue in 2023 and $11.68 billion in profits, compared to $572 billion in revenue in 2022 and over $13.6 billion in net profits in the same year. Compared to over $559 billion in revenue in 2021 and over $13.5 billion in net profits.
Key stats
Revenue increased steadily from $485.65 billion in 2015 to $572.75 billion in 2022, indicating consistent growth in the company’s top line.
Profits peaked at $16.18 billion in 2015 and have fluctuated since, with a low of $6.67 billion in 2019 and a slight uptick to $13.67 billion in 2022.
The number of stores increased from 11,700 in 2018 to 11,400 in 2021, indicating a slight decline in the company’s brick-and-mortar presence.
The number of customers has decreased steadily from 270 million in 2018 to 230 million in 2022, indicating a decline in the company’s customer base.
The trend in profits shows a decline from 2015 to 2019, likely due to increased competition and changing consumer trends, followed by a significant increase in 2020, likely due to the impact of the pandemic on consumer behavior.
The store trend shows a slight decline, also due to the company’s focus on expanding its online and e-commerce presence.
As of 2022, 2,751,779,629 Shares were outstanding for Walmart. The company’s major shareholder is the Walton family, whose mission is to “help people around the world save money and live better โ anytime and anywhere โ in retail stores and through eCommerce.” While its vision is to “make every day easier for busy families.” Walmart defines “busy families” as the bull’s eye of its business strategy. From humble beginnings just over 50 years ago, Walmart’s business model has become the worldโs largest retail company.
With over $611 billion in net sales in 2023, Walmart operates a differentiated business model with three primary units: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, Sam’s Club (a membership-only warehouse club), and Walmart+. This subscription service includes free shipping, unlimited delivery from its stores, and discounts launched in 2021. The company reported a net income of $11.68 billion in 2023.
Walmart generated $611.29 billion in revenue in 2023 and $11.68 billion in profits, compared to $572 billion in revenue in 2022 and over $13.6 billion in net profits in the same year. Compared to over $559 billion in revenue in 2021 and over $13.5 billion in net profits.
In 2023, Walmart reported 240 million customers compared to 230 million global customers in 2022, 240 million customers in 2021, and 265 million customers in 2019.
Walmart had 2.1 million associates globally in 2023, compared to 2.3 million associates globally in 2022, the same number in 2021. In 2020, Walmart had 2.2 million associates globally.
Walmart’smission can be summarized as “helping people around the world save money and live better โ anytime and anywhere โ in retail stores and through eCommerce.” While its vision is to “make every day easier for busy families.” Walmart defines “busy families” as the bull’s eye of its business strategy.
Walmart has a hybrid hierarchical-functional organizational structure, otherwise referred to as a matrix structure that combines multiple approaches. On the one hand, Walmart follows a hierarchical structure, where the current CEO Doug McMillon is the only employee without a direct superior, and directives are sent from top-level management. On the other hand, the function-based structure of Walmart is used to categorize employees according to their particular skills and experience.
From humble beginnings just over 50 years ago, Walmart has become the worldโs largest retail company. A single small discount store in Arkansas has now expanded to over 11,000 stores in 28 countries. Some reports suggest that the company makes $1.8 million of profit every hour.
Amazon has a diversified business model. In 2022 Amazon posted over $514 billion in revenues, while it posted a net loss of over $2.7 billion. Online stores contributed almost 43% of Amazon revenues. The remaining was generated by Third-party Seller Services, and Physical Stores. While Amazon AWS, Subscription Services, and Advertising revenues play a significant role within Amazon as fast-growing segments.
In 2022, most of Amazon’s revenue came from the US, with over $356 billion in revenue, followed by Germany with $33.6 billion, the UK with $30 billion, Japan with $24.4 billion, and the rest of the world generated almost $70 billion in net sales.
Both the North American and International segment of Amazon are running at negative margins. Indeed, in 2022, for the North American segments, of almost $316 billion in revenue, Amazon spent almost $319 billion in operating costs to run it, thus it generated $2 billion in operating losses in 2022.
For its International segment, of $118 billion in revenue, Amazon spent almost $126 billion to operate it. Thus, it reported a $7.7 billion operating loss.
While for AWS, with $80 billion in revenue, Amazon spent $57 billion to operate it, thus generating almost $23 billion in operating income.
The high operating costs are primarily due to the high cost of running Amazon’s inventory and fulfillment infrastructure behind its e-commerce operations. Indeed, Amazon is as much as a physical player as a digital one.
Amazon was not profitable once AWS was removed in 2022. In fact, Amazon, without AWS generated $10.6 billion in operating losses. While Amazon, without AWS, generated $12.2. billion operating income.
Amazon is subdivided into three operating profit segments: North America, International, and AWS. Amazon AWS is the most profitable segment, with almost $23 billion in operating profit in 2022. While Both the North American and International segments run at negative operating losses, with $2 billion and $7.74 billion in operating losses, respectively, in 2022.
In 2021, Amazon generated almost $470 billion in revenue, vs. eBay’s over $10.4 billion. In comparison, looking at revenues, Amazon was 45x times larger than eBay.
Amazon’s mission statement is to “serve consumers through online and physical stores and focus on selection, price, and convenience.” Amazon’s vision statement is โto be Earthโs most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.โ
In the Amazon Shareholders’ Letter for 2018, Jeff Bezos analyzed the Amazon business model, and it also focused on a few key lessons that Amazon as a company has learned over the years. These lessons are fundamental for any entrepreneur, of small or large organization to understand the pitfalls to avoid to run a successful company!
Amazon has a business model with many moving parts. The e-commerce platform generated $220 billion in 2022, followed by third-party stores services which generated over $117 billion; Amazon AWS, which generated over $80 billion; Amazon advertising which generated almost $38 billion and Amazon Prime, which generated over $35 billion, and physical stores which generated almost $19 billion.
The Amazon Working Backwards Method is a product development methodology that advocates building a product based on customer needs. The Amazon Working Backwards Method gained traction after notable Amazon employee Ian McAllister shared the companyโs product development approach on Quora. McAllister noted that the method seeks โto work backwards from the customer, rather than starting with an idea for a product and trying to bolt customers onto it.โ
The Amazon Flywheel or Amazon Virtuous Cycle is a strategy that leverages on customer experience to drive traffic to the platform and third-party sellers. That improves the selections of goods, and Amazon further improves its cost structure so it can decrease prices which spins the flywheel.
In the letter to shareholders in 2016, Jeff Bezos addressed a topic he had been thinking quite profoundly in the last decades as he led Amazon: Day 1. As Jeff Bezos put it “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death. And that is why it is always Day 1.”
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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