Costco Wholesale Corporation’s COST digital business is becoming an increasingly meaningful part of its retail ecosystem. In fiscal 2026, digitally enabled sales, including third-party delivery, exceeded $33 billion and grew more than 20%. Momentum remained strong in the fourth quarter, when digitally enabled comparable sales rose 19.5%, or 19.8% excluding foreign-exchange impacts. E-commerce site and app traffic also climbed 30%.
The growth is broad-based rather than concentrated in one merchandise area. Pharmacy, home furnishings, small electrics, hardware, housewares and domestics ranked among Costco’s strongest digital sales categories during the quarter. At the same time, Costco is extending same-day availability through Uber Eats, DoorDash and Instacart. Management noted that average delivery times across these platforms are under an hour and that the transactions appear mostly incremental instead of shifting purchases away from warehouses.
The company is simultaneously improving how members discover products online. Personalized product placements and email communications generated triple-digit sales growth in the fourth quarter, while 10% of Costco.com orders included a personalized item. Traffic originating from AI search also grew at a triple-digit rate for the second straight quarter and delivered the highest conversion rate among site traffic sources.
For Costco, continued e-commerce scaling increasingly depends on making digital shopping faster, more relevant and complementary to warehouse visits.
How Walmart & Target Are Scaling Digital Sales
Walmart Inc.’s WMT digital momentum remains strong, with global e-commerce sales rising 23% in second-quarter fiscal 2027 and accounting for 24% of total net sales. Walmart U.S. e-commerce grew 24%, supported by store-fulfilled delivery and marketplace expansion. Walmart also reported more than 40% growth in store-fulfilled deliveries, while fast delivery grew 48%, underscoring how Walmart is using speed, assortment and fulfillment density to deepen digital engagement.
Target Corporation TGT also posted healthy digital growth, with second-quarter fiscal 2026 comparable digital sales increasing 8.7%, led by more than 25% growth in same-day delivery. Target is supporting this momentum through digital personalization, AI-powered shopping tools and enhanced app experiences. Target’s digital traffic from external AI platforms is also rising more than 3.5 times the industry rate, suggesting Target is increasingly using technology and convenience to strengthen online discovery and engagement.
How Does Costco Stack Up Against Its Industry?
Costco has seen its shares tumble 2.5% over the past three months compared with the industry’s decline of 2.6%.
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What Does Costco’s Current Valuation Suggest?
From a valuation standpoint, Costco's forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio stands at 40.03, higher than the industry’s ratio of 27.15. However, it is trading below its 12-month median level of 44.96, indicating some moderation in valuation.
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What Do Earnings Estimates Signal for Costco?
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Costco’s current fiscal-year sales and earnings per share implies year-over-year growth of 8.3% and 11.8%, respectively. For the next fiscal year, the consensus estimate indicates a 7.2% rise in sales and 9.1% growth in earnings.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings for the current fiscal year has increased by 36 cents to $22.87 per share, while the estimate for the next fiscal year has risen by 45 cents to $24.94 per share over the past 30 days.
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Costco currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).