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Walmarts competitive environment
Walmarts competitive environment
Walmarts competitive environment
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Wal-Mart has a unique competitive advantage over its competitors. Its greatest pressure comes from major competitors who are also supermarket retailers, warehouse clubs and general merchandise retailers. The industry that Wal-Mart operates in is a constant changing and growing industry. Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s pr; therefore, it is considerably large.
The company’s pricing, store size and location, technology, layout, environment, mix of merchandise and innovation all factor into its competitive advantage. Wal-Mart has many functions in which is vertically integrates such as advertising, shipping, manufacturing and purchasing. These are all large scale functions that give Wal-Mart its competitive over its smaller competition like Albertson’s, Kroger and Safeway.
Amongst Wal-Mart’s competitors are Kmart and Target; general merchandising, Bed, Bath, and Beyond; retail merchandising, and Costco; warehouse clubs. Wal-Mart also competes against major supermarket retailers like Safeway, Albertson’s and Kroger. These companies find it very dif...
As I have outlined in the charts below, there are various similarities and differences between Wal-Mart and Target. Wal-Mart is Target’s primary competitor, and vice versa. Wal-Mart has a strong market presence in its global markets and has a diverse range of products and services that are affordable and available in stock. Target, on the other hand, does not have a strong market presence or efficient product supply; however, Target’s physical environment and innovative products further the brand’s image and value. Unfortunately, Target and Wal-Mart are both e-commerce laggards with major competitors such as Amazon. Target faces complications with their pricing strategies and their product availability, which hinders their strength when competing
According to Smithson, Walmart can expand its markets to new and emerging markets especially in the third world countries, which can significantly increase its revenues. Secondly, the company can reform is employment practices and improve the quality standard and in doing so, attract more customers and improve its brand image. On the other hand, the company faces threats such as the rising healthy lifestyle trend I that the company in most cases does not provide customers with healthy goods. At the same time, the company can capitalize on this aspect and increase its revenues. Aggressive competition from other discount retailers such as Target creates a great threat to the company (Smithson, 2015).
It’s a place everyone knows, much like the post office or even city hall. Wal-Mart. That is where the oddity lies, in the fact that a retail store is just as well known as staples for towns across the nation; not to mention the fact that Wal-Mart isn’t just in the United States, but around the world. Founder of the billion dollar industry, Sam Walton, did expect success from his endeavor, but no one could have foreseen just how influential the retail store would be. Wal-Mart is an astonishingly successful business with humble beginnings, but may have a rocky road ahead in terms of social issues due to the treatment of employees and it's strong effects on the economy.
Wal-Mart has had a significant economic impact on the US, as well as the economies of countries that have relations with the US. Wal-Mart is the world’s biggest company of any kind, with 80 percent of the households in America purchasing something from the superstore; it is the nation’s largest retailer. Wal-Mart’s continuing price reduction has given Americans the advantage of being able to afford 15 to 20 percent more than they previously could. (Hansen) In a world governed by globalization and greed, competition has become rigid; as a result firms like Wal-Mart have utilized advanced marketing strategies to insure that they are on the ‘neck’ of competition, and are the core deciders of the market. (Ortega) However, Wal-Mart made decisions that were of a disadvantage to aspects of the economy, including the depletion on a small scale of Small Town USA.
Since 1962 and the beginning of the discount retailer market Wal-Mart has been ahead of the retail game. By 1967 there were 24 Wal-Marts that had grossed 12.6 million dollars. In just 7 years Wal-mart had spread into 9 states. By 1979 Wal-Mart was the fastest store to reach a billion dollars in sales. In 2005 Wal-Mart has 3,800 domestic stores along with 3,800 stores internationally, and had made over 312 billion dollars. As you can see the Wal-Mart empire has grown monumentally. To move into this segment of the market would be tough.
The main rivals among the merchandising companies are Wal-Mart, Kohls, Family Dollar and Target among many more. Wal-Mart and Target are their main rivals, this is because Wal-Mart is known for their niche as having the lowest prices and Target is known for their fashions and home furnishings both of these items Kmart tries to compete against. Also buyers see Kmart as a discount store which doesn¡¦t stand when other competitors have lower prices. Kmart¡¦s customer service and available products are two other items that Kmart fails to be a strong competitor in against these rivals. Therefore, the rivalry among the merchandising stores is a strong competitive force in this market. Another external force that affects the market is substitutes.
My objective is to analyze the two retail giants’ methodology to satisfy and maintain customer although that I anticipate Wal-Mart’s to be a better buy than Costco because of the gargantuan scale of Wal-Mart has constructed its commerce on saving the customer Our decision is to invest in Wal-Mart. The choice for Wal-Mart is on the basis that their functional-level strategy is really robust, nevertheless of the fact that they do not treat their employees well. The fact remains that they are financially stronger, have a better business-level strategy, and have a corporate-level strategy than Costco. Costco v. Wal-Mart: What must we learn about them?
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
The top two reasons for such success in ranking first in retail store market, is because Wal-Mart is convenient globally and so are there prices in the competitive market . Wal-Mart has three segments which are superstores, discount stores, and Sam's Club stores, all of these are scattered in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Brazil, and Asia. One downfall was from Sam's club because too many were opening all over internationally it decreased the number of customers per location. Overall despite the company's decline on Sam's club sales, the Corporations did well over all with the figures brought in and conditions.
By making the ordering & inventory reporting systems faster & more automated, Albertson's could drastically reduce costs and become more competitive with Wal-Mart. Albertson's main competitor is Wal-Mart. The biggest component of this rivalry is product cost and price. Because of their superior supply chain and extreme buying power, Wal-Mart is able to sell at lower prices and obtain higher profit margins. Another area of competition between the companies is the location and services available.
Wal -Marts' major competitors are the Kroger co. #2 in annual sales, Albertsons' Inc. #3, Safeway,Inc. #4, and Costco Wholesale Group #5. Now even though Wal- Mart is leading the way in total sales the #2 and #3 businesses lead in way with total # of stores. The Kroger Co. has 3,302 with Albertsons at 2,476 stores nationwide. Wal-Marts total sales for that year alone was beating its 2nd place competition alone by more than 80 billion dolla...
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the discount, variety stores industry. It was founded in 1945, Bentonville in Arkansas which is also the headquarters of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart operates locally as well as worldwide. It operated 1209 discount stores, 1980 super centers, and 567 Sam’s Club by January 31, 2006. It has also extended its operations to many international countries. It runs its retail stores in two forms: Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart Stores. The Sam’s Club sells assorted product lines such as hardwares, electronics, jewelry, and to mention a few. The Wal-Mart stores also offer similar products in addition to the following: health and beauty products, apparel for women, men and children, household appliances etc (www.yahoo.finance.com). The Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values and Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance: Directors, Executive Management, Committees and Stakeholder will be the key elements that will discussed in this report as it relates to Wal-Mart. In addition to that, the major trends in the general/macro environment and industry will be analyzed.
At the first, Wal-Mart only operates its business in home country. However, Wal-Mart became more integrated and independent by expanding internationally. In 1991, Wal-Mart start expands the business at international level which includes 26 countries outside of the United State such as Mexico, China and Canada. Now, Wal-Mart totally has more than 6100 stores in foreign country. The step taken by Wal-Mart is to improve and maintain their achievement outside of the home country. Wal-Mart’s strategy which expands their market at international level gains a lot of benefit to their business.
The benefits or competitive advantage Wal-Mart derived over the years from its supply chain management practices is also covered. The reason Wal-Mart is ahead of their competition is because they invest in technology in the 1980s. This investment paid off in the long run. Wal-Mart invested heavily in IT and communication systems to effectively track sales and merchandise inventories in stores across the country. They have set up own satellite communication in 1983. Employees at the stores have the ‘Magic Wand’ at hand. These barcode scanners allow you to check the prices of items at that particular store by scanned the barcode on the product. This is especially helpful when there is clearance that isn 't always marked and sometimes clearance items are cheaper than they
Wal-mart has a reputation for caring for its customers, of course their employees, and for the prospective public. So Wal-Mart can be an industrial leader for the world of shoppers with an eye for lower affordable prices, company decision makers would continue it's systematic strategies that it's founder and president established years ago. Sam Walton believed in three guiding principles in his strategy planning they were to provide the customer with good value and service, to have a good relationship with its associates, and to be involved with the community.