Walmart reported earnings this morning. Most of the numbers are irrelevant to you and me, having little or nothing to do with the world of private capital and startups, but one metric popped up: in the quarter ended July 31, the "sales of e- Walmart's commerce "in the US were up 97% from the quarter a year ago, with what the company called" excellent results across all channels. "
The Exchange explores startups, markets and money. You can read it every morning on Extra Crunch or receive The Exchange's newsletter every Saturday.Walmart's total revenue increased 5.6%, so you can see the discrepancy between the company's physical activity and its ecommerce businesses, with one managing single-digit earnings and the other reaching nearly the triple digit. For reference, in its fiscal close on May 1, 2020, Walmart's e-commerce sales increased 74%. In the quarter ended January 31, 2020, that figure was much thinner at 35%.
The acceleration of ecommerce is real, as shown by a number of numbers you can analyze, including Walmart's. Heck, when The Exchange was analyzing recent fintech venture capital results, we noticed that the increase in e-commerce spending was perhaps part of the reason why late-stage fintech stores have had such strong results.
So when I was reading Q2 venture capital data on the state of retail technology in general and ecommerce technology more specifically, I was expecting a stellar quarter with a lot of dollars invested in a ton of deals.
Still, while Q2 2020 was slightly better than Q1 2020 for ecommerce VC results, it wasn't a great return. And the first half of this year is pretty slow overall, compared to previous results for e-commerce-focused venture capital operations.
What's up? I have an idea or two, but first let's break down the data that enterprise market data provider CB Insights has compiled, as we extend our seemingly never- enough - end of a look at the first half of 2020 incredibly interesting for startups and VCs.
Do VCs Fall In Love With Ecommerce Startups?
In 2019, e-commerce recorded an average of 314 deals per quarter and just under $ 5 billion in invested capital, with the pace of four quarters for the year coming in at $ 4.97 billion for.