Walmart – The Retail Giant
WALMART – THE RETAIL GIANT
INTRODUCTION
“Walmart” formerly known as “Wal-Mart Stores Inc.” based out of an American store has now become one of the world’s greatest retailers amongst the world’s largest retail companies. This company was founded by Sam Walton residing in Rogers, Arkansas in 1962, initially having its focus on rural areas for their expansion. Now its expansion rates are touching great heights by competing with top retail brands in the world.
This giant is popularly known for selling numerous brands of products at the cheapest prices affordable for a common man. Growing digital web around the globe has also contributed to its expansion rate immensely by attracting customers online. At the same time, it is also criticized for the unfriendly environment in the company, perpetuating low wages & much more!
QUOTE
“Wal-Mart’s success strategies and tactics are easy to understand yet hard to duplicate.” –Michael Bergdahl
“Wal-Mart hires average people but squeezes above average performance & results out of them.” – Michael Bergdahl
“I believe in the ‘Wal-Mart’ school of business. The less people pay, the more they enjoy it. “–Garth Brooks
STATISTICS – What Numbers have to Say?
- The company, Wal-Mart store Inc. the largest retailer in the world opened its first international store in Mexico City in 1991, now operates in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany & etc. having a workforce of more than 9,50,000 it had more than 1,30,000 employees working in 729 facilities outside the US by July 1999.
- In 1993 just 1-percent of all Wal-Mart stores were located outside the US, by the year 1998, the same had grown to 18 percent. Additionally, between the year 1995-1998, 5% of the company’s growth in sales & 4 percent of its growth in profits came from international operations.
- The transfer of Wal-Mart’s corporate DNA to Canada produced dramatic results. Between 1994(acquisition time) and 1997, sales per foot increased from C$100 to C$292 and market share rose from 22% to 45%.
DESCRIPTION – Let’s take a Deep Dive
The rapid adoption of various technology has played a key role in promoting the Wal- Mart’s expansion rate. The “self-develop” strategy of this company has helped to compete in the global market & keep its highly confidential information secure.
The uninterrupted success that Wal-Mart has experienced in the past is getting posed as a challenge in front of them due to the entry of improved product portfolio, convenience in selling & improved experience providing company naming “Amazon” headed by “Jeff Bezos”.
Considering its defence mechanism, Wal- Mart is also trying to capture the digital market by full-force & significantly inviting several investors to invest in. Walmart even implemented its own satellite system in the year 1984 which helped in linking the POS, inventory & supply chain management data with the headquarters.
This innovation has helped Wal- Mart to analyse the customer market purchasing behaviour to identify their basket contents & product co-relations.
In addition to it, the data sharing with its suppliers through Retail Link was a highly innovative move. Due to which the suppliers, as well as some of the internal buyers, could work together to forecast, plan, produce, & ship the goods based on the market needs.
Walmart Benefits
- Goods are available at cheap rates: – Walmart sells all its products at the cheapest price than other retailers. This factor is a unique USP of this store, lowest price to offer, other retailers can’t compete with them.
- Job security for its employee: – Since this retail giant is growing by leap & bounds, employees connected with this company are assured of their jobs in the stores. How much ever costly the basic goods are consumer will always purchase them.
- Diversified business models: – Walmart has spread out its business into various countries providing investors with various opportunities to them. With the help of collaborative efforts & expanding branches in other area’s, it has lead to grow its business model.
Walmart Darkside
- Employee’s mistreated: – It is also heard that despite the price effective strategy of the store, the company has mistreated its employees since its co-founder’s death. Almost 31 number of lawsuits have been filed by their frowned-up employees.
- Illegal Citizens working: – The Company was exposed to the public in 2003, charged for hiring illegal citizens to do some cleaning post-store hours. The Company has also paid off with regards to some claims on them to pave their way off from the case, disputes relating to racial & gender discrimination are also soon.
- Not so environment-friendly operations: – The company has faced several issues with respect to violating water quality laws & also have been forced to spend dollars to improve its compliance with respect to its every plant.
CONCLUSION
Aggregating we can say that the 3 strategies such as cost management, growth management & people management played a very important role in the upliftment of Wal- Mart making it the retail- giant.
Its cost management model played a key role in creating a cost-effective model which will increase the profit margins of the company, growth management strategy helped it in increasing its expansion rate & lastly people management strategy helped it in increasing the employment rate in the world!
Author: Aman Gupta
Scrutiny: Riya Chandra
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