In this wholesale retail industry, the major key players are Costco, Sam’s Club, Walmart, and Target. Other e-commerce businesses like Amazon are also considered the rivals of Costco and other primarily brick-and-mortar businesses. The level of rivalry among existing players is high due to many reasons. First of all, it is easy for the customers to switch their memberships if they are unsatisfied with the company’s products or services. Since the annual fee of membership at Sam’s Club is ten dollars lower than that of Costco, Costco customers can switch their membership to Sam’s Club anytime they want. Many wholesale retailers have similar items, which means that there are no product differentiations among the companies. In addition to that, …show more content…
First, high capital requirement makes it harder for other companies to launch the business. The wholesale retail industry requires the company to offer a wide product category, and therefore the size of the store has to be big enough to carry all the products. At the same time, new entrants should launch their businesses in places where there is a sizeable population. It would probably be better to start the business in major cities in order to gain awareness and mass consumers. Targeting major cities would put high initial costs for any new entrants. Not only that but the company should also be able to expand the stores rapidly both domestically and internationally in order to compete with key major companies in this industry. However, entering the business globally would not be easy for new entrants because they are not likely to have competitive advantages as much as the key major companies do. Having first-mover advantages, Costco and Walmart pretty much have high economies of scale. Because they have been in this industry for a long time, they are more likely to have a good relationship with suppliers. Any new entrants would lack the relationships that Costco and its rivals have established with many suppliers and customers. Therefore, new entrants will have a difficulty gaining a cost
Target and Nordstrom’s are set up mainly as department stores in which product lines are organized in departments to be occupied by specific buyers and sellers. While Nordstrom is arguably the premier retailer of a wide variety of clothing, shoes, and accessories that land on the high end of what most would call “affordable,” Target would be considered the store for people who are middle class. The legendary “half-yearly” sales for men, and the additional markdowns that usually follow a sale section that is usually decently well stocked. The designer brand list has wild range in-house brands like Gucci, Prada, and the plain old Nordstrom line offer more than a few items with incredible looks and high quality for very reasonable prices. Its website is clean and easy
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
For this assignment, I decided to go to a grocery store by my house named Meijer. Meijer is just like any other grocery store, similar to Wal-Mart, yet higher quality products than Wal-Mart.
In today’s world, to save as much money as possible is very important to many people. Grocery shopping is probably the time many people spend most of their paycheck. People will flock to Wal-Mart to take advantage of the low prices. However, another store also offers low prices, and almost consistently more than Wal-Mart does. The store’s name is Aldi, and it is a great store for those customers who are in a rush, and want to save money
The framework that will compare Publix Super Markets and its competitors is the Five Forces Model of Competition. The five aspects that will be discussed are the threat of new entrants into the market, the bargaining power of suppliers and buyers, threat of substitute products and rivalry among competing firms. Striving for the optimal position in each of these categories has given Publix Super Markets the reputation it has pride towards earning. It is important to every compa...
Rivalry among established firms is fierce. There are several factors that illustrate this: established market players (6.1). The product is highly standardized and the switching costs of the customers are low. Players are aggressive (6.2)
However, it does not operate any stores outside of the United States, so it does not present a international threat to Costco. Sam's Club, another membership only warehouse club, owned and manage by Wal-Mart. It works mainly in the United States, but has fews in only 3 foreign countries. Anyhow, we can say that Costco dominates the global market for American membership only warehouse clubs. Compared to his competitors , Costco has been a sucess on the international market with a strong value proposition and mission, but mainly a strong strategy in theirs decisions to enter or not in a specific market. For exemple Costco has an inventory turnover ratio of 11.3, which is better than its main competitors, Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon). Amazon inventory turnover was 7.6 in 2015. With the given turnover ratio, the company take way more days to sell its stock. By having a better inventory turnover ratio and the lowest inventory turnover days possible mean that the company enhance low stocking costs, which increase the overall operating performance. As well we notice that they increase theyre gross operating profit almost every year. However the main profit come from the US territory while the company is struggling in international locations, where comparable-store sales dropped by 8% in Canada during the month and 6% for all of its other international locations combined. This issue is mainly the result
Costco Wholesale Corporation was an uncommon type of retailers called wholesale clubs. These clubs differentiated themselves from other retailer by requiring annual membership purchase. Especially in case of Costco, their target market is wealthier clientele of small business owners and middle class shoppers. They are now known as a low cost or discount retailer where they sell products in bulk with limited brands and their own brand. The company is competing with stores like Wal-Mart, SAM’s, BJ’s, and Sears.
Wal-Mart as we know it today evolved from Sam Walton’s goals for great value and great customer service. Mr. Walton’s competitors thought his idea that a successful business could be built around offering lower prices and great service would never work. Mr. Walton also credited the rapid growth of Wal-Mart not just to the low costs that attracted his customers, but also to his associates. He relied on them to give customers the great shopping experience that would keep them coming back. Sam shared his vision for the company with associates in a way that was nearly unheard of in the industry. He made them partners in the success of the company, and firmly believed that this partnership was what made Walmart great.
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 Home Depot is one company, of many, in the home improvement industry. This market is relatively easy to enter, in fact many materials, previously only at home improvement facilities are now available at e-commerce sites, such as “Amazon.com”. There are multiple suppliers, but those in the industry attempt to negotiate contracts with suppliers, limiting them to whom they may supply. Buyers have a great deal of power as the products sold are easily able to be substituted by products at other organizations in the industry. However, the Home Depot has built its organization so that replication of their processes and systems would be extremely difficult to replicate. They value their employees, their customers, the environment, and finance
... This could become the third solid country of operation that Costco needs to offset its increasing costs. Strengthening the Costco name in its burgeoning market of Mexico will help offset merchandising costs by increasing store loyalty and sales. By increasing its market share in Mexico, Costco will be able to have more income to offset the merchandising costs and it can then have the necessary capital to continue its growth; thus solving key issues 2 & 3.
Costcos threats might include competitors such as Sam’s Club and Walmart. People might pick Walmart over Costco because Walmart does not require a membership in enter and it carries more name brand products. Sam’s Club is nearly the same thing as Costco. The only advantage someone may see to buying from Sam’s Club is that they might be more convenient or they might have more name brand
It is true, everything is bigger in Texas, the grocery stores are no different. There has been a long lasting feud between the two major grocery store chains in the lone star state of Texas. HEB and Walmart have been competing with each other for years in the south. There are plenty of loyal customers for both companies that will fight from dawn to dusk on which is better. Breaking both companies down and comparing the customer service, product quality, product selection, price and the impact both make on the local economy, will hopefully bring an end to this long lasting feud.
One interesting aspect of B2C marketing, however, is that many companies have realized the importance of loyalty. Amazon, Best Buy, and Staples combine merchandising and education to keep customers coming back. Add great customer service, and you get a winning combination.