7-Eleven Japan Co.: a Convenience Store

Although retailers such as Walmart and Target do have loyal customer bases, they are not sitting idle as Amazon and other eCommerce firms obtain a greater market share. They are expanding their online profiles and offering similar shopping experiences. However, they hold one major advantage over Amazon. Every store can serve as a distribution center. Walmart is a perfect example. It has expanded its online profile to provide eCommerce services to its customers (Thau, 2014). Because every store serves as a distribution center, customers can receive their order much faster than Amazon can deliver it.

Retail super-giant Wal-Mart has fought its way to becoming the world's largest company. Wal-Mart’s legendary supply chain technology has allowed them to break the three-day barrier that some economists in the eighties felt that it was unbreakable. In other words, Wal-Mart is often able to replenish items on the Wal-Mart shelf in less than three days – not from the central warehouse to the shelf, but from the manufacturer to the shelf. With quick and reliable 2-day turn around, Wal-Mart is able to maintain lower levels of inventory and still meet customer demand. These lower inventory levels result in either a reduced floor plan with lower carrying costs and lower interest expense – or a greater diversity of products on the store shelves.

Walmart’s approach means frequent, informal cooperation among stores, distribution centres and suppliers and less centralized control. The company’s supply chain allowed consumers to effectively pull merchandise to stores rather than having the company push goods onto shelves by tracking customer purchases and demand. Through the use of universal product codes, implementation of Retail links at the store, use of RFIDs and smart tags, suppliers and manufacturers within the supply chain synchronize their demand forecaste under a collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment scheme, and every link in the chain was connected through technology that includes a central database, store-level point-of-sale systems, and a satellite network. As per report, there was a 16% reduction in out-of-stocks with the use of RFIDs and pointed out that the products using an electronic product code were replenished three times as fast as items that only used bar code technology. These strategies have made Walmart to be the dominant force over other competitors with information and technology helping its supply chain strategy attain greater

China’s underdeveloped infrastructure, in particular the land transport system and connection between different forms of transportation, slowed down distribution, increased logistic costs, and finally hindered expansion into rural regions (p.13). As a result of this slow transportation, Wal-Mart’s two distribution centers couldn’t serve the entire country adequately. On the other hand, these distribution centers were significantly underused due to small amount of stores. Consequently, the retailer couldn’t benefit from cost saving through its distribution approach (p.14). Furthermore, communication with the retailer’s 15,000 local suppliers was inefficient and costly due to the lack of an information-technology network (p.14).

Trader Joe 's sells gourmet foods to its customers with a low cost business model, which may seem very difficult to maintain, due to the rising costs in the international markets and the United States. However, with Trader Joe 's long term experience in operations and limited variety of products, this enables the company to reduce costs and transfer those savings to their customers. Furthermore, Trader Joe’s has a very efficient management process that allows keeping the product costs down to keep their customers satisfied. The management process is very significant for Trader Joe 's in which they have planned marvelously to carry certain products which is obtained at a discounted price from their suppliers. Additionally, Trader Joe’s keep costs down to a minimum by choosing non-prime store locations. For

A store like Nordstrom has built a successful model on availability of knowledgeable salespeople, and other luxury or near-luxury retailers would be advised to pay attention. But a mass retailer like Target is not dependent on “high touch” customer service; rather, the most important things it can do to satisfy its shoppers are to ensure that goods are on the shelf and the checkout process is efficient. As more consumers migrate to

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The advantages of a centralized warehouse is higher service levels and lower inventory holding costs due to aggregating customer demand and pooling risk. That is, if customer demand is high in one region and lower in another, there will be no need to hold excess inventory in a regional warehouse; the variation in demand will balance out and reduce the requirements for excess inventory. Additionally, the fixed costs of maintaining one central warehouse/distribution center will be lower than five regional warehouses.

Effective retailing technology allows companies to manage inventory by efficiently storing, shipping, and stocking items that its customers want. Inventory management is the key to a company’s success or failure, and Kmart seems to be the poster child of poor supply chain management. Since as far back as Joseph Antonini’s leadership, Kmart has had logistics issues (Young, 2002). Another recent CEO, Chuck Conaway, went so far as to admit that supply chain management was “the Achilles Heel” of Kmart (Carr & Cone, 2001). This paper will examine how investing in redundancy, having an increase velocity in sensing and responding, and by building an adaptive supply chain community could have reduced the risk that is damaging to a supply chain.

Locating a central distribution center will increase the control over inventory for Consolidated. Having small point of operations will reduce the amount of inventory that will be maintained at the sites. Each location will have different needs and only stocking the immediate customer needs at each location will reduce overall costs. The purchasing discount will be easier to maintain if all shipments come to one location which will also save the company money. Having a couple small vans deliver to regional locations within an hour is less costly than ordering extra just to meet the minimum purchase discount. The cost of shipping to small locations will be minimal and will save the company and customers money in the long term. If the contractors know of items that they will need for a job they can inform Consolidated and the special items can be delivered to the job site or picked up at the regional office. Communication is key and willing to provide the best service in a timely manner will reduce cost and increase profit.

 Good distribution concepts with no one store more than 6 hrs. away from warehouse.

Operating such dynamic distribution centers is usually very expensive and allows possibilities of product wastage. The high capital requirement to run such large distribution centers produces a natural barrier to entry and smaller firms frizzle out if they try and compete with the larger firms.

Following considerable investment in new warehouse and carrier management systems the number and quality of delivery options had increased. Now delivery options include: same day, next day or standard delivery options that normally takes around 2-3 days. Also customers can set delivery date by themselves and if wanted can be notified via email or text alerts of delivery status. In addition 85% if orders are tractable

There are many advantages and disadvantages for Ben & Jerry’s to penetrate the Japanese market by relying on 7-Eleven, an

A major element of 7-11’s success is its focus on convenience. By staying open 24 hours a day and offering quick and easy pre-made food items, customers are able to make a speedy stop at the store at any point during the day. 7-11 continues to add to its selection of food items to better compete with fast food restaurants and other