Walmart ecommerce results highly exaggerated – former director of business states

Bloomberg reported the story but the company denied the charges.

Tri Huynh claims he was terminated “under false pretences” after he set off alarm bells about Walmart’s push to show meteoric growth in its ecommerce business, sometimes by illegitimate means, according to Bloomberg reported.

The lawsuit alleges that Walmart placed some marketplace items in the wrong product categories, causing some vendors to pay higher commissions. It also alleges the company’s failure to process customer returns worth USD 7 million led to inflated ecommerce sales.

Huynh, who came to Walmart from Amazon in 2014, said he was told by superiors to stop bringing up his questions about business controls and ethics breaches, leading him to approach ecommerce head Marc Lore in early 2017. Shortly thereafter, he was terminated during a broader workforce reduction.

In the Q4 of 2017, Walmart’s ecommerce sales growth, which had been averaging north of 50% in prior periods, dropped by more than half to 23%.

CEO Douglas McMillon blamed it on operational challenges including inventory overstock during the critical holiday period. The company’s ecommerce sales growth rate for the entire 2017 was 40%.