MGT4315 Team4 Case2
TEAM FOUR MGT4315 Section 70, Summer I 2015
Shana Collins
Jim Kinter
Cathy Phelan
Traci Rush
WALMART CASE STUDY
Executive Summary
Walmart is the leading retailer in the U.S. that offers discounted products to consumers. According to the case, Walmart’s product dominance consists of general merchandise with a small percentage in health, beauty and groceries. Walmart’s approach to retail dominance includes establishing a discount club called Sam’s Club that offers bulk products at a discount rate. Discounting products contributes to a competitive advantage Wal-Mart tries to establish.
Remaining competitive in an industry with competitors like Target and Kmart proves to be challenging for Walmart. Keeping cost lower than the amount customers are willing to pay helps build higher profit than their competitors. As the largest retailer in the United States and one of the top two largest employers. With sales in excess of nearly $470B, the company represents a driving force in the global economy. In 2013 the company had 1.4 Million employees and represented 45% of general merchandise sales in the United States. From its inception, the company has been driven to innovate in the retail space in order to deliver on their mantra of Everyday Low Prices. In order to continue to drive growth, the company expanded heavily into international markets; however, they were greeted with somewhat tepid responses.
The single greatest threat facing Walmart is that from competition among existing companies. The ongoing shift in consumer preference for online transactions presents Walmart with a very real, very substantial threat from companies like Amazon. Walmart continues to fight this by promoting the notion of “Ship to Store” which allows consumers to have a user experience similar to that of Amazon and letting the company take advantage of their supply chain investment to quickly and efficiently move products from supplier to consumer. A challenge with this is that
Shana Collins
Jim Kinter
Cathy Phelan
Traci Rush
WALMART CASE STUDY
Executive Summary
Walmart is the leading retailer in the U.S. that offers discounted products to consumers. According to the case, Walmart’s product dominance consists of general merchandise with a small percentage in health, beauty and groceries. Walmart’s approach to retail dominance includes establishing a discount club called Sam’s Club that offers bulk products at a discount rate. Discounting products contributes to a competitive advantage Wal-Mart tries to establish.
Remaining competitive in an industry with competitors like Target and Kmart proves to be challenging for Walmart. Keeping cost lower than the amount customers are willing to pay helps build higher profit than their competitors. As the largest retailer in the United States and one of the top two largest employers. With sales in excess of nearly $470B, the company represents a driving force in the global economy. In 2013 the company had 1.4 Million employees and represented 45% of general merchandise sales in the United States. From its inception, the company has been driven to innovate in the retail space in order to deliver on their mantra of Everyday Low Prices. In order to continue to drive growth, the company expanded heavily into international markets; however, they were greeted with somewhat tepid responses.
The single greatest threat facing Walmart is that from competition among existing companies. The ongoing shift in consumer preference for online transactions presents Walmart with a very real, very substantial threat from companies like Amazon. Walmart continues to fight this by promoting the notion of “Ship to Store” which allows consumers to have a user experience similar to that of Amazon and letting the company take advantage of their supply chain investment to quickly and efficiently move products from supplier to consumer. A challenge with this is that