Analysis Of Amazon And Wal Mart

The supply chain management is considered as a management concept from past two decades as the customers are concerned about timely and safe delivery. The competitiveness has been increasing among the companies to deliver the products as quickly as possible to the customers all around the world. This has made the supply chain management as a vital tool for the management. This is also measured as a competitive parameter for the companies.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. helps individuals around the globe spare cash and live better - at whatever time and anyplace - in retail locations, online and through their cell phones. Every week, more than 245 million clients and individuals visit our almost 11,000 stores under 65 flags in 28 nations and e-trade sites in 11 nations. With financial year 2015 net offers of $482.2 billion, Wal-Mart utilizes 2.2 million partners around the world. (Wal-Mart Corporate) Wal-Mart is a superpower in the business world and has been that way for 50+ years. Understanding how it got to this point and how it has maintained its successful business model starts with its

Walmart and Amazon have become global, household names in the US and for good reason: both of these companies have revolutionized the way in which we shop. Amazon offers a convenient experience, and an ever-expanding selection of products whereas Walmart has a wide network of store locations and famously low prices. As investments, these companies highlight the dichotomous nature of the retail industry – brick-and-mortar vs e-commerce; high growth vs steady growth; US vs International; actual vs market expectations. This report provides an in depth comparative analysis between Walmart and Amazon. We will first summarize the industry and these companies, followed by an analysis of market position and financials, and finally an

Wal-Mart is arguably the most dynamic corporation in the last 50 years in the United States, if not the world. Arising from its beginnings in Bentonville, Arkansas, it has grown to over 4,400 discount stores, super centers and corner markets worldwide. Wal-Mart continues to expand despite public criticism of its labor practices as well as complaints about their treatment of competitors. The many strengths of Wal-Mart, like their low cost production and marketing practices, will aid Wal-Mart as it continues to grow in the retail

The companies I am studying are Wal-Mart and Target. Both are major discount retailers, general merchandisers who compete as cost leaders. These companies both very large, big enough to execute on their strategies effectively. Yet one has chosen the path of international growth and the other has not yet, pending expansion into Canada in 2013.

Question 1. Compare walmart.com with amazon.com. What features do the sites have in common? Which are unique to Walmart.com? To Amazon.com?

Walmart has literally invented efficient customer response systems that enable it to maintain its low-cost leadership strategy for its physical stores, re-creating a different or separate logistics supply chain is proving difficult and expensive. Walmart has not been that involved in online shopping but now it’s being forced to increase its Internet presence based on Amazon’s success. Walmart has literally invented efficient customer response systems that enable it to maintain its low-cost leadership strategy for its physical stores, re-creating a different or separate logistics supply chain is proving difficult and expensive

Discussion Question: Which parts of the value chain does Wal-Mart target in order to achieve a low-cost advantage over its rivals? Answer: Wal-Mart has an extensive real-time information sharing network with vendors to make the supply chain much more efficient. It targets purchasing, store delivery, procurement practices that leverage the company’s relative buying power, investment in a large fleet of trucks for distribution of inventory, optimization of the product mix, use of security systems, preferred real estate rental and leasing rates, and lowering labor costs.

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.

Walmart is one of the biggest companies in the world, but it also has extremely tough competitors. Currently Walmart is the largest retailer in most countries of the world for numerous reasons. For one, they supply a wide variety of items to be purchased that include entertainment, groceries, health and wellness, hardware, furnishing, apparel and many more. Walmart also has over 11,100 stores in over 27 countries according to Market Realist. These two reasons alone give Walmart a huge advantage over its’ competitors. Walmart has both strengths and weaknesses when it comes to its’ competitors not only across the nation, but across the world as well. Some of the main domestic competitors of Wal-mart consist of Target, Costco, Amazon, and the dollar store trinity. Along with that, Walmart has international competition such as Carrefour in France, Metro in Germany, Tesco in the United Kingdom, Loblaw Companies in Canada, and Ahold in the Netherlands. Although Walmart has competitors with all of these companies worldwide, it still remains the “#1 retailer in Canada and Mexico and has operations in Asia (where it owns a 95% stake in Japanese retailer SEIYU ), Africa, Europe, and Latin America”, according to Hoovers. Strangely enough, Walmart is growing more overseas than it is in the United States. Even with all these companies it has to compete with, Wal-mart’s total sales are still almost 5 times its’ competitors. As it generates a net sale of over $483 billion in one year,

One way is by making information readily available to both the company and the suppliers through online systems. This allows information to be transmitted quickly and products to be made efficiently. The purchasing and distribution activities of Wal-Mart are also parts of the value chain that are very efficient. They try to centralize their purchasing as much as they can. This basically gets rid of the middleman, which then saves money. An automated distribution center will further increase the efficiency of Wal-Mart’s value chain. Wal-Mart also is sure to keep labor costs to a minimum. By making sure the costs of their value chain are low, Wal-Mart is able to be a low-cost industry leader.

4. Relations with Suppliers- Wal-Mart has in place a system that helps to achieve their goal of lower prices. This Information Technology system includes computers, networking, and internet that cuts inventories and waste and helps with speedy delivery. This system also helps Wal-Mart to keep in constant contact with suppliers by transferring the data that suppliers need so they know what Wal-Mart needs. Wal-Mart also works with suppliers to improve their production and squeezes the best prices out of its supplier. The video referred to Wal-Mart as the customer’s agent. All of this focus Wal-Mart puts on suppliers reduces costs and lowers prices. Wal-Mart’s technological/logistical leadership remains unmatched by competitors (Web, 2005).

A few reasons as to why Wal-Mart became a leader in the retail industry is due to their practices in obtaining competitive advantage by offering the lowest prices for the market. Wal-Mart built their practices by giving suppliers transparency to meet the demand of customers and granting them long-term relationships by purchasing goods in bulks. In addition, their turn times on inventory are three-five days faster than regular competitors. The inventory shelves are similar to Honda since they only hold up to four hours of inventory in their manufacturing site. Also, Wal-Mart holds their own transportation which is why they can manage their costs efficiently for the company. Their transportations system constitutes links between suppliers, distribution centers and retail stores. They have restrictive criteria for drivers where in order for them to be hired they would have to be accident free for a consistency of minimum 300,000 miles accident free. The supply chain practice that they have gained since they began the business was strategically faster and cheaper than all competitors. 85% of Walmart’s inventory is taken care of by their own transportation system and only about fifteen percent is taken care of by the suppliers through cross-docking. Wal-Mart uses

Although it is the most established because of its long history and early start, competitors such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, AutoZone Inc., eBay Inc., Rakutenchi Inc., Netflix Inc., Jet.Com, Wal-Mart and Time Warner Cable among others exist (Yahoo Finance, 2015). Notably, apart from Jet.com, Amazon’s competitors are segmented according to products and services offered; for instance, Wal-Mart stores Inc. offers competition in general merchandise and electronics segment while eBay, Time Warner Cable and Apple offers competition in the media segment. Among the competitors, Apple Inc. and Google Inc. have the highest market capitalization; however, the Amazon’s dwarfs all other competitors. Amazon has a high market capitalization at $254.82 billion (Nassauer, 2015). The table below shows Amazon’s major competitors based on their market capitalization and 52-week share price range

There are five generic business strategies that companies choose from when trying to successfully compete within their respective industries. This is the first choice a company must make, even before deciding an overall strategy. These generic business strategies include low-cost provider strategy, broad differentiation strategy, best-cost provider strategy; focused strategy based on low costs, and focused strategy based on differentiation. These strategies have many advantages as well as disadvantages. Choosing which one to use depends on what market position a company wants to pursue. Deciding to be more offensive or defensive also plays a role in choosing a