Wal-Mart: "Everyday Low Prices" in China

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Wal-Mart: “Everyday Low Prices” in China Wal-Mart, what started out as a few small discount centers in areas where no big retailer was willing to operate, has since grown into one of the top retailers in the world, boasting the top revenue in the retail market and being the once “most admired” company in the US according to Fortune magazine. Wal-Mart’s success can be attributed to a few different strategies, such as the commitment to sell name brands for less than competitors, availability, service, and cost control. Wal-Mart has used a strategy of going into communities in which there would be no real retail competition, essentially where it would be unrealistic for consumers to shop elsewhere. Also by providing a mass variety of goods, Wal-Mart has developed a one stop shopping center, providing convenience to buyers, in particular families. By driving down the costs from their suppliers and overhead as much as possible, it resulted in some of the lowest prices possible for consumers, in which they kept at low prices all the time, as opposed to constant fluxuating prices with sales and promotions. All of these competitive advantages can be seen as reasons for Wal-Mart’s success in North America, particularly the US. This success model however cannot carry over into foreign markets without changes. There are many intervening factors that also should be taken into effect, such as laws and culture in foreign markets that can prove as large barriers for this same business plan, particularly in China. I believe Wal-Mart is not having the success it hoped for and expected in China because they got focused on the enormous market size, and lacked research into the market structure prior to market entry. Exterior factors such as consumer behavior and buying patterns, transport infrastructure, and the markets economic situations, all paired with laws and

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