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Wal-Mart's market development
Wal-Mart + sustainability
Wal-Mart's competitive strategies
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Key stakeholders of Wal-Mart consist of store associates, customers, and suppliers. Wal-Mart values their stakeholders and sees them as an outlet to becoming a more sustainable company. Stakeholder engagement is done on a continual basis, both internally and externally. Wal-Mart commits to engaging, listening, and partnering with all their stakeholders in order to save its customers money so that they can live better (Wal-Mart Store, Inc., 2015). They have several stakeholder forums including sustainable value networks, my sustainability plan, and multistakeholder collaborations. Community stakeholders admire Wal-Mart’s efforts in getting to know the community in order to better serve them. Consumers favor convenient and affordable places …show more content…
Through Wal-Mart’s use of information systems that can instantly access and analyze each stores orders, inventory levels, and sales in real time, it achieves significant cost savings (Jurevicius, 2013). This is one of the most important factors in Wal-Mart’s success. Wal-Mart offers both branded and own label products at much lower prices than competitors do (Jurevicius, 2013). Customers are mainly attracted to Wal-Mart because of their wide range of products and services for a low …show more content…
Wal-Mart offers their customers a wide variety of high quality products and services at the lowest possible price. They have many programs designed to meet competitive pressures including everyday low price, everyday low cost, and rollbacks (Morningstar, 2015, p. 11). When another company sells a product at a lower price, Wal-Mart will honor that price and lower their price. Wal-Mart has the ability to respond effectively to competitive pressures and changes in the retail markets (Morningstar, 2015, p. 22). An increasing amount of customers shop online, and to improve their shopping experience Wal-Mart interacts with them through social media. This company offers “Walmart Pickup” and “Pickup Today” programs as a part of their multi-channel sales strategy ( Morningstar, 2015, p.
But Wal-Mart’s care for us goes beyond that simple relationship. As many of us have seen if we have been to a Wal-Mart, they hire people who normally would not be able to get a job. The company knows that by broadcasting itself as positive and helpful in nature it can increase its revenue and in turn increase the amount of assistance it provides to us the consumer. “In 2004 Wal-Mart donated over $170 million. More than 90 percent of these donations went to charities in the communities served by Wal-Mart stores.’ Even more heartfelt than this, Wal-Mart was the leader in goods based relief efforts for victims of hurricane Katrina. “Walmart’s response to the hurricane was lauded even by its critics: it donated more than $20 million worth of merchandise, including food for 100,000 meals, and it promised jobs for all of its displaced workers.” And the first supply truck to arrive at the superdome was a Wal-Mart truck.
Walmart recognized several areas with the greatest environmental impact and began working towards sustainability in each of those areas. One area
reaches its capacity management every winter when the volume of demand for products increases dramatically. During this time, sales are faster than the system who automatically calculates sales average every five weeks and orders inventory. Then, the manager of the store has to input manually order to keep up with fast rate of sales during winter time. Walmart 32nd St. relies on its information technology systems to take bests decisions reduce risk, increase efficiency of existing resources and forecast accurately on current sales in order to balance capacity management. Data is the key for capacity management efficiency. Technology plays an important role for system perspective at Walmart 32nd St. where the manager focuses on how the structure behavior of the system determine certain events. Walmart 32nd St. use smart devices that help the manager or supervisors to overview data, and get store records in seconds from certain products or activities. Before managers used to waste time and spend hours and days getting data, doing calculations, and then reaching to conclusions. Now days, the data is very accurate and available on
There are several key competitive edges that keep Wal-Mart successfully maintaining its leading position in the industry. First of all, Wal-Mart’ multiple store formats allows Wal-Mart to extend their customer base. Since Wal-Mart opened its first store in Rogers, Arkansas, July 2 1962, it has extended its store number from 9 stores to a total 4,906 throughout the four types of store: (Discount stores, Supercenters, Sam’s club, and neighborhood markets) Wal-Mart is able to embrace more customers to fulfill all kinds of demand such as live supplies, groceries, pharmaceuticals, and entertainments. As a result, Wal-Mart’s sales and profit increase significantly. Backward expansion strategy is another key for its success. Unlike other retail stores, Wal-Mart opens its stores in small town first before entering into metropolitan area.
Wal-Mart provides low prices for people to afford more of these great products and to stretch their dollar more. Wal-Mart opens their stores in rural areas that are destitute. These people don’t have the ability to buy the latest and finest products around. That lifestyle of buying and getting the modern item is foreign to them. Thanks to Wal-Mart these people are able to grasp this lifestyle and experience for themselves (Coster 1). People are saving hundreds of dollars and these savings really add up. According to a study by the New England Consulting group, U.S. consumers save $100 billion annually, or $600 for the average America family (Maich 6). These savings for consumers and families are astounding. This data is not only about those who shop at Wal-Mart but this data is about all consumers. This is so because “Wal-Mart sells for less, it forces competitors to cut prices in order to compete” (Maich 6). A s...
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.
Wal-Mart is now operating globally, and its main vision is for additional global expansion of operation and "promotion of ownership of ethical culture" to all of its stakeholders worldwide (www.walmartstores.com). The idea of Wal-Mart’s vision on ethical culture is key in globalization. Wal-Mart has had good reputation and competitive advantage worldwide because it has been able to embrace culture and diversity in its operations across nations. In promoting ethical culture, Wal-Mart helps its customers and stakeholders to take the right decisions and to do the right thing.
Walmart leverages the IMS to track products or packages. Because they know when the products are sold, how long did it take for it to sell and where they were sold? They use this information to refine the flow of products. The power is going from push to the pull. The product is not driving the final transaction. The customer is important and the interaction that the customer has with the product in the store is essential as well.
Wal-Mart has been praised for providing cheap diverse products close to home, while providing hundreds of jobs. The leading discount retail store got its title by selling its items at a lower cost than other competing stores. Whereas competing grocery store Winn Dixie sells a steak for twenty dollars, Wal-Mart sells it for seventeen dollars. This price difference may not seem like much, but when Wal-Mart’s overall prices average differs from Winn Dixie’s by a few dollars, it begins to add up. Wal-Mart has allowed for low income families to buy products for a reasonable price. Along with its low prices, Wal-Mart has been known to sell wide variety of products. While some stores such as Winn Dixie, Kroger, and Publix only sell food items, Wal-Mart sells food items along with electronics, clothes, and toys.
While keeping in mind they are a business which rely on profits. Walmart is a popular company that is known for their low prices. This corporation is also known for giving back to communities by making charitable contributions of 100,000 grants annually, as well providing disaster relief to various countries burdened by disasters and donated $100 million dollars to neighborhoods and law enforcement agencies. They also provide employees with college grants to obtain a two or four year college degree, Walmart is investing in their employees by giving them an advantage in their future. Walmart has also found ways to reduce waste by creating materials that are nontoxic and are recyclable friendly. With the use of sustainability, strategic philanthropy, causing marketing, shared values and stakeholder that is why this company was ranked number one by Forbes list in
Wal-Mart is known to beone of the best supply chain companies in the world. Throughout the years Wal-Mart has adapted strategies that keep up to their name. Unlike many retailers, Wal-Mart purchases goods directly from manufacturers, skipping a few steps of the supply chain cycle. Buyers use advanced negotiation skills to make sure they are receiving the best price on purchases. Wal-Mart also has their own trucks picking up from warehouses, reducing the price significantly on transportation. Long term relationships with vendors are extremely emphasized to understand prices and cost structure. These practices build Wal-Mart to its name and keeps low prices for retail customers all over the world. Supply Chain studies have shown that in 1998, Wal-Mart would fill up stock in 2 days compared to their competitors which would complete it in 5. Part of the reason Wal-Mart would replenish so
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.
The gross profit during the year 2015 was actually a $10 billion increase from their fiscal year 2014 (University of San Francisco, 2015). Over the past six years, Walmart continues to generate these types of numbers, representing increases in growth, time and time again. The company’s income was generated by more than 4,500 stores in the United States alone which is supported by a supply chain that moved from number 14 to number 13 on research and analyst company Gartner’s annual ranking (University of San Francisco, 2015). Many business professionals have analyzed and interpreted Walmart’s supply chain management approaches, making it apparent which elements of their strategy have proven effective. These major supply chain components that have shaped Walmart’s success over recent years are their buyer bargaining power (one of Porter’s Five Forces), focus on the overall customer experience, and investments in emerging technologies along with the implementation of these technologies in their business
Many groups have a stake in what Wal-Mart does. Stakeholders can be broken down into two diverse groups: market stakeholders (shareholders, employees, consumers, and suppliers and non-market stakeholders (labor unions and environmental stakeholders).
When Sam Walton died in 1992, some industry insiders doubted that the Wal – Mart chain that he had founded some 30 years earlier would retain its prominence as a discount retailer. Lost for good they feared, would be the “magic spark” that Walton used to light fires under the chain’s 1.3 million associates. And, as Wal – Mart stock failed to enjoy the same bull – market growth as many other companies in the mid – 1990s, the pundits appeared to be correct. Today, however, with stores in all 50 U.S. states and nine other countries, Wal – mart has rebounded, leading the pack of discount stores with record earnings. In fact, with $218 billion in annual sales and 100 million customers per week, Wal – Mart is the world’s largest retailer and was named “Retailer of the Century” by Discount Store News.