Speaking at the JPMorgan 12th Annual Retail Roundup 2026, Rainey said that growing general merchandise is “one of the major pillars of our strategy” and that marketplace is “the vehicle by which we’ll do that,” according to a transcript posted by Walmart.
Walmart’s marketplace business is growing at a 20% rate. Some categories, such as home, hardlines and fashion, are growing at a rate greater than 30%.
“These are areas that we’ve been a little weaker in on a relative basis,” Rainey said of the fastest-growing categories. “We’ve talked about the need to grow our general merchandise assortment. This is a great opportunity to do that.”
The retailer’s marketplace has also been adding sellers. As of the holiday season, Walmart had three times the number of sellers it had a year earlier. The company also has half a billion stock-keeping units (SKUs) on its marketplace, and it aims to grow that number to continue expanding its assortment.
Walmart has identified 300 brands that it considers “must-have” for its marketplace, and the retailer has secured about half of those, with 75 being added over the past year.
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“There can be a bit of a halo effect with some of these brands as well,” Rainey said. “When you begin to add Apple products, then maybe another product follows on because of the perception that goes with that.”
Vendors are realizing that Walmart “has changed a little bit in the last few years” and are seeing that the company is acquiring new customers and growing share in both physical and digital channels, Rainey said.
“The fact that we can be growing something low-double digits year to date, I think, is a really encouraging sign about how our business is changing,” Rainey said.
It was reported in February that Walmart’s development of an eCommerce business that is now capable of competing with Amazon is one of the factors that drove the company’s market capitalization over the $1 trillion milestone.
