What is Wal-Mart dong that seems to fit a definition of “successful” e-commerce operations? What cold they do better? How does shopping on-line compare to your experience looking for a similar type of item at a bricks-and-mortar store? How does this site compare to other experiences you’ve had with e-commerce??
When you talk about Wal-Mart the first thing that you have to remember is that they are the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart employs more people in the United States than any other company and is second only to the federal government in the number of employees that they have on the payroll. These are important facts to consider in that due to their tremendous size, Wal-Mart has an enormous effect on the economy and the way that business is conducted. In many instances, if a company wants to continue to do business they have to either follow what Wal-Mart is doing or attempt to compete against Wal-Mart in some other fashion. It is not unreasonable to state that Wal-Mart is the reason why many businesses are in business today. They were forced out by the sheer size of Wal-Mart.
So, with this in mind it is interesting to note that Wal-Mart ranks only third on the e-commerce scale behind Dell computers and Amazon. (Sullivan 2004) What is the reason for this? It’s hard to say and point to one specific reason why Wal-Mart doesn’t lead this list but maybe looking at the criteria outlined in the background reading will help to answer this question. (Wollan 2003)
In the background reading a list of criteria is given that outlines the advantages of e-commerce as it relates to operations management. The companies that are able to capitalize on these are the ones that will be successful. Wal-Mart is able to capitalize and continues to do so as it improves and expands into the e-commerce environment. Some of these advantages are:
• Better availability of service
• Cost reduction in information processing
• Better of timeliness of service
• Better access to customer markets
• Initial cost of operations less expensive
• Operating costs of operations less expensive
• Bet...
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...Wal-Mart provides not only a Boolean search box but also some “pretty” tabs labeled with general names such as toys and electronics. But this is not special and is in fact pretty much the norm for companies that do business online. In other words, the Walmart.com website does not stand out from the crowd. As a matter of fact if you compare the Amazon.com websites to Walmart.com they look very similar. (Amazon 2005) I found the Dell website to be less friendly and almost irritating with the addition of pop-up ads that I had to close. (Dell, 2005)
REFERENCES
Amazon (2005) [Company web-site]. Retrieved June 19, 2005 from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/home/home.html/103-3903465-0764615
Dell Computers, (2005) [Company web-site]. Retrieved June 19, 2005 from http://www.dell.com/
Sullivan, Laurie. (2004, November, 8). E-Commerce: Promise Fulfilled. InformationWeek, 1013(3), 70.
Wal-Mart. (2005). [Company web-site]. Retrieved on February 21, 2005, from http://www.walmart.com
Wollan, M. L. (2003). E-commerce operations management. PowerPoint presentation for OPM 500, Module 5.
Zimmerman, A. (2003, Nov. 21). To sell goods to Wal-Mart, get on the net. Wall Street Journal, B.1.
Wal-Mart represents the sickness of capitalism at its almost fully evolved state. As Jim Hightower said, "Why single out Wal-Mart? Because it's a hog. Despite the homespun image it cultivates in its ads, it operates with an arrogance and avarice that would make Enron blush and John D. Rockefeller envious. It's the world's biggest retail corporation and America's largest private employer; Sam Robson Walton, a member of the ruling family, is one of the richest people on earth. Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad." (The Nation, March 4th 2002 www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower).
The success of Wal-Mart has yielded admiration and sometimes condemnation from numerous stakeholders. While some people applaud the retail giant for improving the living standards of citizens, creation of jobs, and improving the welfare of its employees, others argue that the retail giant has disrupted communities, brought down small retailers and compromised the living standards of
Wal-Mart, a "Big-Box Retailer" employs more than 2.1 million associates worldwide and has two-thousand seven-hundred stores in the United States with many more in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom, making Wal-Mart the largest retailer in the world. "Wal-Mart accounts for upward of 30 percent of U.S. sales, and plans to more than double its sales within the next five years" (Lynn 29-36). Why is Wal-Mart so successful, and is Wal-Mart actually bad for America?
Walmart is one of the most successful franchises of all time and continues to take fire from multiple angles, whether it’s about the costing of jobs, the wages, the health insurance, the small business destruction, or the environmental impact, but can always back itself up by negating those claims with facts that proves that it is beneficial to the community.
Since 1962 and the beginning of the discount retailer market Wal-Mart has been ahead of the retail game. By 1967 there were 24 Wal-Marts that had grossed 12.6 million dollars. In just 7 years Wal-mart had spread into 9 states. By 1979 Wal-Mart was the fastest store to reach a billion dollars in sales. In 2005 Wal-Mart has 3,800 domestic stores along with 3,800 stores internationally, and had made over 312 billion dollars. As you can see the Wal-Mart empire has grown monumentally. To move into this segment of the market would be tough.
The top two reasons for such success in ranking first in retail store market, is because Wal-Mart is convenient globally and so are there prices in the competitive market . Wal-Mart has three segments which are superstores, discount stores, and Sam's Club stores, all of these are scattered in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Brazil, and Asia. One downfall was from Sam's club because too many were opening all over internationally it decreased the number of customers per location. Overall despite the company's decline on Sam's club sales, the Corporations did well over all with the figures brought in and conditions.
In general merchandise retailing, Wal-Mart’s primary competitors are Target and Kmart. Retail superstores such as Circuit City and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, also provide retail competition. A survey found that the majority of respondents favored Wal-Mart over stores like Target and Kmart. Respondents claimed Wal-Mart offered lower prices, better variety and selection, and good quality. The needs of consumers is an important economic feature in all competitive environments. What attributes (price, variety, quality, etc.) prompt buyers to choose one retailer over another is very important in the competitive landscape.
Company Selection Paper Team B's assignment this week was to select two different publicly traded companies in the same industry. The two companies will serve as the basis for subsequent team assignments. The two companies chosen for the study are Wal-Mart and Target. This paper provides an overview of each of the selected companies. Date of Company Establishment Wal-Mart was established in 1962 by Sam Walton.
Walmart a name known globally they are a true empire. They are known as one of the largest company in the world. Sam Walton founded Walmart opening the first store in 1952 and Arkansas since then in has grown. According to Snyder Walmart is located in over 27 counties they have over a 11,000 stores and over two million employees. Walmart stands by the mission statement “We save people money so they can live better.” Walmart is known for is super low prices, and they compete with anyone who tries to enter their market. Walmart has a very formal and bureaucratic structure. There is a very clear hierarchy and commands come from the top and flows to the bottom. Although Walmart is so successful they have received lots of backlash due to some
I woke up one morning in the need of some groceries because I ran out of eggs to make breakfast. I also realized that I needed ink cartridges, glue for a project, and a video game that I wanted; materials that normal grocery stores wouldn’t sell. Wal-Mart is the typical superstore where you can get almost anything. So I figured what better place to get all of these items at a good price than to go to Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is in the discount, variety stores industry. It was founded in 1945, Bentonville in Arkansas which is also the headquarters of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart operates locally as well as worldwide. It operated 1209 discount stores, 1980 super centers, and 567 Sam’s Club by January 31, 2006. It has also extended its operations to many international countries. It runs its retail stores in two forms: Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart Stores. The Sam’s Club sells assorted product lines such as hardwares, electronics, jewelry, and to mention a few. The Wal-Mart stores also offer similar products in addition to the following: health and beauty products, apparel for women, men and children, household appliances etc (www.yahoo.finance.com). The Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Values and Code of Conduct, Corporate Governance: Directors, Executive Management, Committees and Stakeholder will be the key elements that will discussed in this report as it relates to Wal-Mart. In addition to that, the major trends in the general/macro environment and industry will be analyzed.
Walmart is a retail giant that just about everyone in America has purchased something from them. It is a one stop shop for anything that a person could ever need. Walmart stores can be found anywhere in fact most people are less than an hour drive away from a Walmart store. Walmart’s success has put many companies out of business. The chains success is primarily from low prices and using an information technology system to meet customer demands giving them a competitive advantage. Walmart’s first major use of information technology came in 1975 when the company leased an IBM computer system to track inventory in warehouses and distribution centers. Computers have come a very long way since this time and are used almost everywhere. But in 1975 this was cutting edge technology and gave Walmart the competitive advantage over other retailers. Another thing that Walmart used to be revolutionary in their supply chain was the use of scanning barcodes in 1983. Before barcodes objects had to be read by a skilled cashier. With barcodes all that was needed was a quick scan and the computer would do all the work. This greatly sped up checkout time and made tracking inventory and data collection much faster and easier for both customers and the employees. Since this time it has become an industry standard for products.
Wal-mart has been able to achieve respectable leadership in the retail industry because of its focus on supply chain management. Discuss in detail the distribution and logistics system adopted by Wal-Mart.
The first Wal-Mart was opened in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. By 1969 it was incorporated into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., and in 1972 went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The company grew steadily across the United States, and by 1990 was the nation's largest retailer. In 1991 and 1994, Wal-Mart moved into Mexico and Canada respectively. By 1997 it was incorporated into the Dow Jones Industrial Average. As of 2005, Wal-Mart has stores in the United Kingdom, and Puerto Rico, and brings in revenue of close to 300 billion dollars a year. In 2006, Wal-Mart invaded the China and India's markets. During the last two decades, Wal-Mart has been able to take advantage of the rise of information technology and the explosion of the global economy to change the balance of power in the business world (Wikipedia, 2006). Today Wal-Mart continues to grow and their success is not only from their sound strategic management planning but also from its implementation of those strategic plans. In other words operational planning has been an important key to their success.
Hoover describes Amazon as the Earth's biggest everything store. If Wal-Mart improved its online presence and online store, Wal-Mart can easily be the ne...