Although it not always brings surprise to the fasting changing business world like new technology, it is crucial not only to the GDP and also important to everybody’s daily life by always being with consumers. It is worth to look into the retail industry in different aspects when facing the big economic depression and think of the possible future in the fasting changing business environment. The retail industry of the United States plays a leading role in the worldwide since the retailing companies that are based in the U.S. dominate on the global retailing stage and at the same time, the retail industry outweighs other industries within the States. According to the latest annual
As an owner of Sam’s Club, it provides products in bulk to people who pay for a membership, much like Costco. QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS Operating Efficiency, Steady growth, excellent know-how of financial and strategic operation management, and low pricing-model - what Wal-Mart has made stronger when analyzed qualitatively using Porter’s Five Forces Model. Wal-Mart, Target and Costco - these are the three major players in the industry. Using Porter’s five forces, we can qualitative analyze the growth of the discounted retail industry. * Internal Rivalry: HIGH Costco, Target and Wal-Mart represent oligopoly that hold a vast majority of the market-share.
(Strategy Development Group, Inc, 2002) K Mart’s product line includes Joe Boxer, Route 66, Wrangler, & Martha Stewart products. (CBS Interactive, 2011) These product lines give K Mart a competitive advantage unlike Wal-Mart and Target. Additionally, K Mart would be wise to include more product lines geared more towards their market segmentation. Other competitive advantages include K Mart’s loyal customer base. Frequent shoppers often have a resistance to new discount stores.
Comparison of Communication Style Wal-Mart v/s Sears Both, Wal-Mart and Sears retail outlets have embraced low price strategy to motivate customers to buy their goods. These two retail outlets have many marketing strategies in common. They also have some different approaches when dealing with customers of diverse culture. Wal-Mart aims to sell specialized items to its customers. In regard to this, Wal-Mart management stocks items that they feel would sell out faster during specific times.
The Fulfillment Partner Business segment refers a 3rd party liaison between customers in search of low prices and retailers & manufacturers that are looking to liquidate. The company’s strengths includes: strong branding and excellent marketing via TV, radio, and print. The company’s weaknesses includes: 1) Poor global economic conditions have affected consumer demand for the kind of goods that Overstock.com sells. 2) Overstock.com spends large sums of money on search engine promotion since search engines such as Google have become the increasingly popular way of searching for merchandise versus an established platform such as Amazon. WalMart Inc. WalMart Inc. is the world’s largest retailer and grocery
Technologies such as UPC scanners, RFID tags, Retail Links, and MCAPS allowed them to efficiently manage their supply chain and reduce shrinkage; as a result Wal-Mart provided their suppliers with point-of-sale information so that the suppliers could in turn plan their production runs accordingly and keep their own prices competitive. Due to its high-volume purchases (and sales), the company was able to exercise sufficient power over its suppliers to negotiate favorable payment terms; suppliers were credited at the time of sale. This resulted in the suppliers retaining ownership of their products until goods were sold at which time the accounts-payable term began. The combination of the two—high-volume purchases and sales, and delayed accounts payable—allowed Wal-Mart to improve its inventory turnover while
Marketing – Summer 2013 (Assignment 1: Walmart Case; Submitted by: Rohan Saldanha) 1. What are Wal-Mart’s key success factors in the United States? Evaluate the difficulties in transferring these key success factors to other nations? Walmart has been a success in the United States due to a variety of factors. Firstly, most of its supercenters are about 185,000 square feet and offer a plethora of groceries, electronics and other consumer goods at prices that are rarely matched.
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Question 1 The case highlights competition between three major firms in the discount store industry – Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target. These firms sell relatively homogeneous goods, do not cooperate and compete aggressively in pricing. Additionally, the firms operating have significant market power and due to the existence of barriers to entry because of high initial investments, the number of firms is fixed in the short/medium-run. Thus, it was considered that Wal-Mart stores exist in an oligopolistic competition where it operates numerous stores that provide consumers with products and services.
Wal*Mart Stores, Inc. , although combating in the highly competitive discount merchandise retailing industry , has been able to establish its competitive advantage through the development and deployment of its resources and capabilities and by differentiating itself from its competitors. I found the concept of internal resources and capabilities analysis and value chain analysis in differentiation very useful for me to understand and analyze this case of Wal*Mart. Wal*Mart competes in the merchandise retailing industry which has low profit margin, high buyer/supplier bargaining power, intensive rival competitions and relatively easy entry criteria. In an environment like this, a firm such as Wal*Mart would need to resort to itself, to explore the firm’s own resources and capabilities, and to search for the source of competitive advantage internally for creating profit. Because of this, I believe the internal resources and capability analysis concept is appropriate and useful when applied to the particular case of Wal*Mart.
(Wal-Mart Corporate Website) Huge turnover, large customer base and returning customers show that Wal-Mart has been able to achieve this goal in its 50 years of existence. Wal-Mart sources material from third world countries at low price. Very efficient supply chain management and bargaining power has enabled Wal-Mart to sell goods at low price. Company is also pursuing vertical integration strategy to lower cost. Answer-2) Wal-Mart Stores had turnover of $446.95 billion and net income of $15.77 billion in financial year ending