Good afternoon. This is Salvador Villaseñor, Investor Relations Director for Walmex. Thank you for joining us today to review the results for the Q1 of 2023. Today with me is Guilherme Loureiro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Walmart de México y Centroamérica, and Paulo Garcia, Chief Financial Officer. The date of this webcast is April 26, 2023. Today's webcast is being recorded and will be available at www.walmex.mx. Before we start, let me remind you that the content of this webcast is property of Wal-Mart de México S.A.B. de C.V., and is intended for the use of the company shareholders and the investment community. It should not be reproduced in any way. This webcast may contain certain references concerning Wal-Mart de México S.A.B. de C.V. future performance that should be considered as good faith estimates made by the company.
These references only reflect management's expectations and are based upon currently available data. Actual results are always subject to future events, risks, and uncertainties, which could materially impact the company's actual performance. Now, it is my pleasure to turn the call over to our CEO, Gui Loureiro.
Thanks, Salvador. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us to hear about our Q1 2023 results. I want to briefly introduce Salvador, who many of you already know from his previous job. Salvador joined Walmex a couple of weeks ago and now will be the Head of Investor Relations. I want to thank Pilar de la Garza for the seven years in which she successfully headed the role. She will now have a different position in Walmex. We started 2023 delivering double-digit total revenue despite a still atypical consumer environment. We saw inflation trending down towards the end of the quarter, yet food inflation remained high, so customers continued to adapt their shopping habits to afford a full basket.
Our core business is resilient and is allowing us to deliver low prices to help customers afford what they need while we accelerate our new business to provide full solutions, diversifying our source of income and getting closer to our customers. During the last couple of years, we have been working to expand our price gap. Last year, we shared with you that we have reached a historically high level of price gap. Now, we'll focus on price perception, which we increased by 110 basis points during the Q1 . We know price perception is a much more volatile metric. However, as a customer-centric company, this metric is a priority for us. We are helping customers save money and live better beyond our stores. During the Q1 of the year, private brand sales penetration grew by 50 basis points versus last year.
Active Bait users more than doubled versus Q1 2022. Remittances transactions grew 16%. We were not able to grow ahead of the self-service and clubs market measured by ANTAD on the Q1 2023. We are not happy with the result. I will provide more details later in the presentation. We will continue to enhance our value proposition to win our customers' loyalty and resume our growth gap versus the market. Let's review our performance during the Q1 of 2023. Please consider that when I talk about results in Central America, I'm referring to figures on a constant currency base. During the quarter, consolidated total revenue grew 9.7%. Mexico delivered a 10% growth and Central America a 13.5% growth.
On a two-year stacked basis, consolidated total revenue growth continued at high levels, reaching 20.7% in the Q1 of 2023. Now, let's review sales performance in Mexico. Same-store sales grew 8.7% in Mexico. Sam's Club delivered the highest growth. Our team is working on enhancing the value of the membership in an omnichannel way. Plus members have free deliveries in orders above MXN 1,000 and 2% cashback, whether they are buying at our clubs or online. During the quarter, both online orders and members grew more than 20% versus last year. Omni members have a higher ticket and frequency versus brick members, 2.8 x in sales, 2.3 x in frequency, and they have a renewal rate above 90%. Additionally, Plus member sales reached a penetration in March of 65%.
Member's Mark is key to Sam's Club's success. It plays an important role in creating member loyalty while offering a low price. We launched the Member's Mark Funds program, where 5,000 members give us their direct feedback through focus groups for new product developments through monthly surveys. During the Q1 2023, Member's Mark penetration grew 320 basis points versus Q1 2022, reaching an all-time high of 21.6%. Bodega continues to deliver above average sales growth. On top of delivering the best price to our customers, we are working to drive price perception. During the quarter, we implemented a new in-store communication strategy, which led to a 50- basis- point price perception increase and allowed us to grow the saving satisfaction of our customers, measured through our NPS, versus the average of stores that have not implemented the new strategy.
Our efforts are being appreciated. During the quarter, PROFECO recognized us for having the lowest price of the basic basket nationwide. In January, Bodega was recognized as the third most valuable brand in Mexico, according to Kantar BrandZ. The trust our customers have in our brands is great advantage continue to build our ecosystem. We appreciate that trust and work hard every day to further reinforce that trust. Walmart and Walmart Express formats delivered softer growth given that general merchandise categories, which have a bigger weight on sales in Walmart Supercenter than the rest of the formats, is lower down as customers are favoring basic needs amid the high inflation environment. During the quarter, we implemented seasonal campaigns such as Valentine's Day event, where sales had a 50% growth at Walmart and Walmart Express. Our customers enjoy the assortment we are bringing for the seasonal campaigns.
Going forward, they will continue to be a focus for Walmart and Walmart Express. Our Walmart Pass users increased 20% versus last year, which are very relevant for us since they have a frequency 60% higher than non-users. We will continue to develop solutions that delight our customers and make their lives easier. Let's look at e-commerce performance. During the Q1 , e-commerce GMV grew 19% and sales grew 70%, representing 4.9% of total sales in Mexico and contributing 0.8% to total sales growth. On Demand was the main growth driver. Through On Demand, we enhanced all seasonal events offering more than 80,000 SKUs and 60-minute deliveries from more than 330 stores in Walmart and Walmart Express. Walmart Pass continues to gain relevance, reaching a 35% sales penetration in both formats.
In Bodega, Despensa a Tu Casa also had a strong performance, hosting a triple-digit growth versus Q1 2022. We are now offering more than 60,000 SKUs from 527 stores in 245 cities, adding more than 80 stores and 50 cities in the quarter. Now we can reach 55% of the homes we serve in Bodega with On Demand. We also began the proof of concept of our 60-minute delivery in 5 Bodega Aurrera Express to offer fast and convenient deliveries to our customers. Regarding extended assortment, we continue to leverage technology and initiatives implemented in other Walmart markets. During the quarter, we launched initiatives to improve our sellers' experience, such as international carrier automation. With this implementation, the international packages tracking will be updated automatically, allowing us to provide a more accurate delivery time, enhancing, improving our customer's experience.
Another example of technology leveraged from Walmart is the implementation of Goods to Person, an automated process in which a robot brings the items needed for the order to the picker. This technology was implemented in the fulfillment center of Mexico City. We now have 11 robots and 109 shelves, which will allow us to improve our productivity by 30% for small items. We continue accelerating in our marketplace. During the quarter, the number of SKUs increased more than 50% versus December 2022, and grew 30% in sales versus Q1 2022. Let's talk about our new businesses. I will start with financial services. On March 7, we announced the authorization from the CNBV to acquire the Maxican fintech, Institución de Fondos de Pago Electrónico, EFPI, called Trafalgar. A couple of weeks ago, we announced the closing of the acquisition.
We are very excited about this milestone as it will allow us to take Cashi to the next level. Besides making digital payments at Bodega Aurrera, Sam's Club, Walmart Express, Walmart Supercenter, and its e-commerce sites, bill payments and mobile phone top-ups, and applying for credit, very soon our customers will be able to send and receive money through the SPEI payment network, make withdrawals both at the cashiers from company stores and clubs, and the ATMs. Make payments everywhere. In the near future, it will allow sending and receiving remittances, among other services. These functionalities will make Cashi more attractive, and more importantly, will provide our customers a safe, friendly, convenient, and seamless solution to handle their finances. Through this acquisition, we are unlocking Cashi's potential. Now we can fully deploy the robust financial solutions platform we wanted to create as part of our ecosystem.
As always, we'll keep you posted on our progress. Continuing with our new business. Bait reached 6.2 million active users, 2.6 x the number of active users we had in Q1 2022. We are accelerating user acquisition through third-party channels. We work with more than 30 distributors in order to reach more new users. During Q1 2023, new users coming from 3P channels grew 9 x versus last year. This allows Bait not only to offer compelling price, but also a seamless experience for our users. Walmart Connect delivered strong performance during the quarter, posting a 64% growth and implementing 70% more campaigns versus Q1 2022. We're helping advertisers to connect meaningfully with customers by leveraging omni-channel data. Nescafé's 75th anniversary campaign is a great example.
We implemented an extensive campaign in 100 stores with more than 300 modules, totems, and corridor arts at both Walmart Supercenter and Bodega Aurrera. This campaign put sales in the participating items growing 45% versus the same period of last year. Let's look at our performance compared to the market. During the quarter, the self-service and clubs market measured by ANTAD grew 30- basis-point ahead of us. We are listening to our customers and working hard to enhance our customer value proposition, fine-tuning our commercial offering to resume our growth gap versus the market. We know inflation impacts our customers' budgets. We'll continue to offer the best price to help our customers afford a full basket. This may have a short-term impact in sales growth versus the market.
However, when we see growth in terms of volume, our growth is in line with the extended market measured by NielsenIQ in the first 2 months of the year. As I mentioned before, inflation has impacted the growth of discretionary categories like general merchandise. This impacts our growth versus the market since we have a larger penetration of these categories. As inflation normalizes, the consumption will also normalize, allowing us to accelerate growth. As I mentioned before, we'll continue working towards expanding our growth gap versus the market, both in sales and volume. Moving to Central America. Same- store sales grew ahead of the market. The momentum continued with a 12.4% increase during the Q1 . Guatemala and Nicaragua delivered their highest growth rates, followed by Honduras, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. The Bodega and Descuento formats are our focus in the region.
We implemented price point campaigns such as Tu Menú del Campeón and Precios para el Verano with good response from our customers, leading to a 22% and 70% growth respectively. Our brands are a key element of our strategy. We had 385 new product launches for the summer, back to school, organization and cleaning, and health and beauty campaigns. Our brands grew more than 20% a quarter and increased their penetration by 170 bps . Let's talk about new stores growth. During the quarter, we opened 12 new stores, 9 in Mexico and three in Central America. New stores' contribution to consolidated sales growth was 1.4% for the quarter. We celebrate the opening of Bodega Aurrera number 2,300 in Santa Anita, Cadereyta, reinforcing our commitment to bring the low prices to more customers in Mexico.
To finalize, let me tell you about our main efforts on environmental, social, and governance matters. We want to be the best place where our associates can be, grow, and belong. To achieve it, we have been enhancing our associate value proposition. It is great to see our efforts are paying off. For example, during the quarter, we celebrated more than 170 associates who obtained their high school certificates through the EduWalmart- CENEVAL program. We were included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index for the sixth consecutive year, and the State of Mexico awarded us with the Orange Distinction for Business Equality. During the quarter, we installed 27 collection points so our customers could properly dispose their Christmas trees. This year, we collected 4,000 Christmas trees that were composted.
Now talking about communities, we will continue to focus on providing access to the best pricing products and services. We have the lowest price for the basic basket. We provide the lowest cost for connectivity, and we will continue to develop solutions to help people save money and live better. To close, I would like to thank our associates for their efforts and hard work. Once again, we managed to navigate through the short-term challenges with agility and innovation while implementing our long-term strategy and building the Walmex of the future. Thank you again for joining us today, and I leave you with Paulo, who will cover the financial results of the quarter.
Thanks, Gui. Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to review the results for the Q1 of 2023. I'll start by covering Mexico results. Then I will cover Central America. Please consider that when I talk about results in Central America, I'm referring to figures on a constant currency basis. Let's look at Mexico results first. As we heard from Gui, total revenue grew 10%, driven by 8.7% same-store sales growth and e-commerce contribution to total growth of 0.8%. Gross margin expanded by 30 basis points, driven by efficiency in logistics, lower import costs, and new sources of revenue. SG&A grew 13.8% and represented 14.9% of the revenues. We'll review the SG&A breakdown in just a moment.
Considering these results, operating income grew 7.4% and EBITDA margin contracted by 30 basis points to 11%, yet maintaining best-in-class levels. Let's review SG&A. Our strategy is a growth strategy, and we are going through an investment phase to further accelerate growth. By managing expenses with discipline, improving our units per labor hour indicator, and fostering an Everyday Low Cost mindset, we are able to partly offset the increase in labor costs resulting in a deleverage in operating expenses of 10 basis points. In parallel, we invested behind strategic priorities and enablers such as talent that impacted expenses by 40 basis points. During the quarter, we launched the Super Funcionales initiative in more than 400 stores of Bodega and Walmart Supercenter, where we reached 50% of multifunctionality and capture savings.
We are implementing the initiative in Sam's Clubs as well in order to improve productivity at our clubs. Now, let's review Central America results. Please consider that when I talk about Central America, I will refer to the figures on a constant currency basis. Total revenues increased 13.5%, driven by a 12.4% same-store sales growth. It is encouraging to see all countries delivering strong same-store sales growth. Aligned to our strategy, we are doing strong price investments to drive sales, which resulted in a 20- basis -point contraction of our gross margin. We also focus on simplifying our business and driving productivity. As a result, expenses only grew 7.2% leading to 90 basis points expenses leverage. The expense leverage was driven by productivity initiatives at the stores that positively impacted labor cost and operational leverage of other fixed expenses.
With the above-mentioned results, operating income grew 24%, 1,050 basis points ahead of revenues and EBITDA margin expanded 20 bps to 10.1%. At a consolidated level, total revenue increased 9.7% with new stores contributing 1.4% to total growth. Gross margin expanded by 20 basis points to 23.6% and SG&A grew 11.5%. Operating income grew 8.8% with a 8.4% operating income margin and EBITDA margin decreased 20 basis points to 10.8%. Consolidated net income grew 3.7%, as during the quarter, we recorded a provision of $70 million due to the changes in the taxable base of previous periods in one of the countries in Central America.
This had an impact on our effective tax rate, which we expect to return to our previous quarters levels going forward. Excluding this impact, net income would have grown 15.6%. Now moving to the balance sheet. Cash grew 32.9% versus Q1 2022. As a result of cash generation and in preparation for the first installment of the dividend payment we have scheduled for this year. Inventories grew 12.4% driven by bettering stock levels versus last year, especially in products of the basic basket. Going forward, we expect inventory levels to normalize versus 2022. Finally, accounts payable grew 8.5%. In the last 12 months, we generated MXN 78.5 billion in cash and MXN 3.8 billion through working capital.
We returned MXN 29.6 billion to our shareholders as dividends and invested MXN 21.5 billion in our return projects. We paid MXN 70.7 billion in taxes and our plan fund required MXN 2 billion . All in all, our cash position finished the Q1 at MXN 46.6 billion. In closing, I would like to emphasize the three key messages of the quarter. Double-digit top line growth in both markets, in line with our accelerated growth strategy. We will continue to enhance our customer value proposition to gain our customers' loyalty and resume our growth gap versus the market in Mexico. The number two, EDLC is in our DNA. We'll continue with strict expense control in both markets whilst investing behind our growth strategy. Lastly, we remain committed to deliver best-in-class capital returns, ROIC.
Thanks again for your interest in our company. As always, we'll make ourselves available to answer the questions you may have and see you in a couple of months.