Walmart’s online sales soar as it chases Amazon

Walmart’s recent spending spree to try to catch up to Amazon seems to be paying off.

The world’s largest retailer said Thursday that online sales soared 60 percent in the past three months as people shopped more at Walmart.com, Jet.com and its other websites.

Walmart had paid more than $3 billion for Jet last year, and since then picked up smaller players including ModCloth and Moosejaw. It is also expanding online grocery ordering to more stores, and is adding giant automated kiosks to 100 locations so customers can pick up online orders without waiting for employees to fetch them.

Other traditional retailers are seeing online gains, too: Walmart’s report came a day after Target said its online sales jumped 32 percent in its most recent quarter.

But Amazon still poses a threat. The e-commerce giant is in the process of buying Whole Foods in a $13.7 billion deal. That could shake up the U.S. grocery business, where Walmart now holds the largest share.

Walmart’s profit was hurt by costs related to boosting its online operations. WalMart Stores Inc. earned $2.9 billion, or 96 cents per share, in the three months ending July 31, down from $3.77 billion, or $1.21 per share, in the same period a year ago.

Stripping out certain items, earnings were $1.08 per share.

That was a penny better than what analysts polled by Zacks expected.