Costco digital sales pass 33 billion dollars. Online outgrew stores twice over

Costco crossed 33 billion dollars in digital sales in its 2026 financial year. Modern Retail put the growth above 20 percent. The company’s own results release of 24 September shows e-commerce comparable sales up 20.9 percent for the year.

E-commerce grew 20.9 percent while the chain grew 8.4

Total comparable sales rose 8.4 percent over 52 weeks. Online rose more than twice as fast. In the fourth quarter the gap held: 9.4 percent overall against 19.5 percent online.

Net sales reached 297.2 billion dollars for the year and 93.9 billion in the 16-week quarter. Costco ended the year with 939 warehouses.

Ron Vachris points at members under 40

The chief executive said membership under 40 has grown more than 60 percent since the pandemic. That group is now over a quarter of the base.

Vachris told analysts those members start out spending less and grow into higher spenders. The company reported 5.907 billion dollars of membership fee income for the year.

DoorDash and Uber Eats now cover the whole United States

Uber Eats started in 17 states and went nationwide in mid-September. DoorDash covers the country too. Instacart has carried Costco orders since 2016.

Third-party delivery keeps pulling grocery volume online. Instacart says retailers without markups grow faster, which is the same argument in a different frame.

Tariff refunds added 15 cents to fourth-quarter earnings

Diluted earnings per share came in at 6.75 dollars for the quarter and 20.76 for the year. Costco flagged a non-recurring 0.15 dollar benefit from IEEPA tariff refunds. Strip it out and the quarter looks slightly thinner.

Pharmacy sales rose 20 percent over the year. Non-food chains are moving the same way, with Primark confirming home delivery in Great Britain.

The winners here are the delivery platforms and the suppliers whose products sell through them, because a fifth more online volume flows through their rails. The loser is any grocery chain still treating delivery as a pilot, because Costco has spent a year turning it into 33 billion dollars.