Wal-Mart



Wal-Mart

Introduction

Outline of the Study

Wal-Mart adopts different strategies in order to differentiate the company from the closest competitors. The main competitive strategy of Wal-Mart is to make its dominance in every sector where it operates its business. It determines its success and dominance over competitors by measuring the sales. The strategies that Wal-Mart adopts in order to gain the competitive advantage are to sell its goods at low prices, make expansion in the business and outsell its competitors (Hemphill, 2005). In order to make it different from its competitors Wal-Mart adopts the strategy to open new stores and increasing the size of its existing stores.

Background of the Study

The most significant trend that impact Wal-Mart's business is that the company focuses on three main distribution networks: Wal-Mart Stores Division U.S., Sam's Club and Wal-Mart International. The company works with nine different sizes of stores: supercenters, food and drugs, general merchandise stores, bodegas (small retailers), cash and carries stores, membership warehouse clubs, apparel stores, soft discount stores and restaurants.

Wal-Mart always strives to “provide quality products at an everyday low price and with extended customer service”. In order to achieve this, they have adopted a series of strategies which range from loyalty programs for customers to e-tailing. Some of the major strategies include building divisions, which include smaller stores built in small communities with a population of less than 5000 people; this strategy allows Wal-Mart to give special attention to customers in smaller markets, in rural America. Another division is the Sam's Club which is basically a membership only cash and carry operations, in which only wholesale operations are carried out (Pearce & Robinson, 2011).

Literature Review

External Analysis

Social Factors

In US, the access of the Internet is growing day by day. Statistics show that almost 29.8 million households have access to the Internet. This ratio increases the trend of online buying and marketing, which could be helpful for the Wal-Mart in a sense that they can start their online marketing campaign.

Economic Factors

There are some economical factors which can affect the market of Wal-Mart for US. These are the factors through which the purchasing power of the potential clients is affected. The economy of US has low inflation rate which is considered as the benefit and good sign for the companies. The rate or inflation has decreased to 1.3%. Another good factor for the Wal-Mart is that the unemployment rate of US is very high ...