Kmart SWOT Essays

(3) In an effort to replace foreign- sourced goods sold at Wal-Mart stores with American-made ones, Wal-Mart developed its “Buy American” program. By 1989, the company estimated it had converted or retained over $1.7 billion in retail purchases that would have been placed or produced offshore, and created or retained over 41,000 jobs for the American work force.

Kroger’s corporate strategy consists of continuously innovating and creating new ways of bring value to the customer. They were pioneers for many of the things that we now consider norms in grocery stores. In the past, Kroger had rapidly expanded to many store locations to gain market share. This expansion strategy caused them to lose profits in

When examining competitive advantage, it is also important to consider the market and take into account the existing competition against larger firms.

Competition is a constant challenge for Kohl’s especially when it comes to retaining customers and the market share. Kohl’s also has a weak global presence and the profitability was declined in

Low product differentiation and economies of scale: There isn’t much product differentiation at play in the retail industry as there are well known manufacturers whose products are offered for sale, which leaves price to compete on. Current well established retailers with thousands of stores enjoy the economies of scale to control their cost that a new entrant might not be able to replicate after immediately entering the industry.

Under new leadership, Kmart went to restructure the company. In 2004, Kmart merged with Sears, Roebuck and Company and went on to be a part of the Sears Holdings Corporation. Since then, Kmart has continued to try to revitalize stores one by one. Kmart has also started to sell Sears brand products in stores, such as Kenmore and Craftman.

The intensity of rivalry and the threat of substitutes are strong components for J.C. Penney to consider as they continue to strive for increased revenue and market share. Their two primary competitors are Macy’s and Kohl’s, both of whom have fiercely competitive strategies to be strong retail operations. For instance, while Macy’s offers a multitude of promotional deals and is working hard to choose products based upon demographics and geographic segmentation, Kohl’s is attempting to reduce their inventory levels and improve their marketing strategies in order to become a stronger competitor in the department store segment of the retail industry. In order to compete with their competitors, J.C. Penney aims to focus on their previously successful promotions and home department segmentations by bringing in new reputable designers in order to attract a larger customer base. Due to the fact that the intensity of rivalry and threat of substitutes are both moderately strong in the retail department store industry, J.C. Penney ought to be diligent in their implementation of strategies in order to achieve success in the retail business.

Kmart is a huge vintage company that had peeked at one time and now is

There were also proprietary brands that were held by both Kmart and Sears, and with the merger it would be easier to get those brands out to the target demographics. Making each

to sustain their level of growth. There are several problem areas that Kroger will need to stay

Kmart was a joint ownership between G.J Coles and Coy Limited (Coles) and S.S Kresge Company (owners of the American Kmart) and they opened up the first department store in 1968 in Australia. At the first opening, approximately $989 thousand Australian dollars were made that day (for 2018 standards). It was closed after only 45 minutes in order for customer safety. After that first venture, Kmart was thriving in Australia, and in 1994 Coles bought all shares that S.S Kresge Company had owned. After Kmart’s success in Australia, they expanded to New Zealand in 1988 and continued growing and expanding its business.

The one thing that Kmart did do was invest in redundancy. Unfortunately, their supply chain has always been behind the times, as its regular out-of-stock notices on hot items indicate, while causing an overflow of less popular products. The lack of real-time data access resulted in higher inventory carrying costs, poor buying decisions, and increased markdowns when products did not sell as anticipated. Financially, it has resulted in lower sales and lower profit margins per square foot. Kmart earns $245 whereas Target earns $275 and Wal-Mart $440. Kmart’s gross margins are 2.0 to 3.0 percent whereas Target’s are 5.5 to 7.0 percent and Wal-Mart’s are 5.5 to 6.5 percent (Atlas Partners & Watertown Capital, 2002).

Currently Kmart has been constantly losing to competitors such as Wal-Mart and Target. Target is seen as a higher class store compared to the other two, and Wal-Mart is seen as a good store with good prices. Kmart has had trouble finding it’s own identity. They try to market themselves as being a better bargain than Wal-Mart, but the store is viewed as being “cheap” from the customer’s point of view. Kmart tried to fix that, by bringing in the Martha Stewart line. They

     In my opinion the most important of these factors is the Supply Chain Management. If the customer is not able to get the product when they want it or the product is always sold out, they will go somewhere else. Wal-Mart has taken the role of

Lampert purchased Kmart stock while still in bankruptcy and painstakingly emerged from bankruptcy on May 6, 2003. Immediately after emerging from bankruptcy, Lampert begin the renaming and restructuring of the Kmart organization, closing some 300 stores and laying off some 30,000 employees. Lampert renamed the organization Kmart Holding Corporation and immediately begin trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange on June 10, 2003.