Costco's E-commerce Momentum Keeps Its Growth Engine Running

Costco Wholesale Corporation COST continues to demonstrate robust momentum across its digital platforms, underscoring how effectively the retail giant is expanding its e-commerce reach. The company's August sales results show sustained strength in its online channels, with digitally enabled comparable sales surging 17.9% for the four-week retail month ended Aug. 30, 2026. It outpaced the company’s total comparable sales increase of 8.4% for the same period.

For the 16-week fourth quarter, digitally enabled comparable sales expanded 19.5%, while fiscal 2026 digital comps posted a remarkable 20.9% increase. Even when excluding the volatile impacts of foreign exchange rates and gasoline price fluctuations, the momentum remains consistent. On an adjusted basis, digitally-enabled sales grew 17.9% in August, 19.8% in the fourth quarter and 20.7% for the 52-week fiscal year. The narrow gap between reported and adjusted digital growth suggests that the channel’s momentum was driven largely by underlying activity.

By integrating digital convenience into its value-oriented warehouse ecosystem, Costco has successfully unlocked greater member accessibility. Costco’s digital reach spans a broad geographic footprint. The company operates e-commerce sites in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and China.

As digital adoption gains friction-free traction across international markets, Costco’s e-commerce ecosystem solidifies its position as an increasingly pivotal pillar of the company’s overall retail footprint.

How Costco Compares With Target and BJ’s Wholesale

Target Corporation’s TGT digital business showed solid momentum in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, with comparable digital sales rising 8.7%, led by more than 25% growth in same-day delivery. Target also reported more than 40% growth in Target+ marketplace GMV and Target Circle 360 membership revenues. Target is further investing in technology and personalization across digital channels, while external AI-platform traffic is growing at more than 3.5 times the industry rate.

BJ's Wholesale Club Holdings, Inc. BJ posted strong digital momentum in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, with digitally enabled comparable sales up 30% and two-year stacked growth of 64%. BJ’s Wholesale said members are increasingly using buy-online-pickup-in-club, same-day delivery and ExpressPay, with digitally engaged members spending more and showing stronger loyalty. BJ’s Wholesale engages its digitally active members via innovative tools like its AI-powered shopping assistant, Bev.

What the Latest Metrics Say About Costco

Costco has seen its shares tumble 6.9% over the past three months compared with the industry’s decline of 8.8%. 
 

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From a valuation standpoint, Costco's forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio stands at 40.72, higher than the industry’s ratio of 27.02. However, it is trading below its 12-month median level of 45.40, indicating some moderation in valuation.
 

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The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Costco’s current financial-year sales and earnings per share implies year-over-year growth of 9.8% and 13.5%, respectively. For the next fiscal year, the consensus estimate indicates a 7.9% rise in sales and 10.1% growth in earnings.
 

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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).

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