As part of its holiday shopping season strategy, Wal-Mart offered free in-store pickup on 100 items available on its website during Cyber Monday.
While those were a fraction of the total stock available on the site, the promotion allowed the retailer to get merchandise into customers' hands sooner than e-commerce competitors and served as a way to drive additional traffic into stores.
Even as the Bentonville-based retail giant continues to grow its online sales, getting shoppers into stores remains key to its overall financial success, analysts said. Online sales were strong for Wal-Mart, which reported more than 1.5 billion page views during the five days from Thanksgiving to Monday.
Online sales are an emerging part of Wal-Mart's business but still make up a small percentage of overall revenue. Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough cautioned against declaring the holiday shopping season a success for any retailer based on positive online results.
"Yes, the numbers they've touted are positive, but the Web is such a small percent of what they're doing overall," Yarbrough said. "How many people are going into the stores? That's important. You still need growth in the stores and so you have to ask if the online success is coming at the expense of brick and mortar."
Wal-Mart, which did not disclose in-store traffic or sales for the same five-day period, reported more than 22 million customers in stores on Thanksgiving.
A year ago, the retailer touted 10 million transactions between 6 and 10 p.m. on the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. This year, online success was the focus of Wal-Mart's post-holiday shopping announcement. It reported Tuesday that 70 percent of its online traffic came from mobile devices on Cyber Monday.
Same-day pickup of items ordered online did increase 70 percent from 2013, the company said. Whether those shoppers purchased additional merchandise while in the store isn't known, but satisfying customers who ventured into Wal-Mart stores was a focus this year, Stephens retail analyst John Lawrence said.
As part of its effort to draw more customers into stores, Wal-Mart promised fully staffed checkout lines during peak hours. More stock on shelves -- what Wal-Mart called "ordering deeper" -- also was a promise of the retailer.
"Historically, when they've had the items they're supposed to in stock, they have performed well," Lawrence said. "There have been times over the last few years that sales aren't as robust because of items not being stocked. This year's price points, the in-store execution of keeping items in stock and making sure checkouts are open, it would appear they executed their plan."
Overall Black Friday shopping was projected to be down across all retailers, according to the National Retail Federation. Sales fell off an estimated 11 percent, a second-consecutive decline for in-store sales on Black Friday.
A Black Friday-specific decline did not come as a surprise considering that retailers such as Wal-Mart began holiday sales on the day after Halloween and also saw increases in online shoppers. Online shopping nationwide was up 8.5 percent on the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend. A year ago, that number was up from the previous year by 20.06 percent, according to an IBM analytics report.
The National Retail Federation said customers are expected to spend $105 billion online this holiday season, a record for e-commerce.
Sales over the past week are important for the financial picture of retailers, but Yarbrough said analysts often warn investors not to put too much stock into a single week. Wal-Mart and other retailers will need strong performances during the less-publicized days of the holiday shopping season to ensure they close the year on a positive note.
"This lull period between Black Friday and Dec. 15 -- are shoppers exhausted? Did they spend too much? Will retailers start to get nervous and offer discounts they didn't plan for?" Yarbrough said. "That's where you run into trouble. Does Wal-Mart see a major drop-off online and in stores? That's where you would get nervous."
To prevent a potential lull, Wal-Mart extended its online specials through the end of the week.
Wal-Mart's chief executive of global e-commerce, Neil Ashe, told CNBC during a Monday interview that the retailer continues to look for ways to blend its online and physical stores as a means of serving its customers better.
"What is online sales? What is retail sales? We're really just trying to serve the customer," Ashe said. "That line for us is really blurring. The faster we can grow online, we will, but really the goal for us is to drive all of Wal-Mart sales."
Business on 12/03/2014