Service Supply Chain : Walmart

The two supply chains of Walmart and Amazon are different from each other and are efficient at their own perspectives. Both the supply chains are highly efficient in reaching out the customers in different ways. Walmart’s supply chain is completely based on store based retailing whereas Amazon’s supply chain is based on online retailing. The various methods followed by Walmart in its supply chain are vendor management inventory, cross-docking and central warehousing. Amazon acts as a retailer, as a third party and as an agent in supply chain management while selling various products through online.

Walmart has 4 key groups of stakeholders. Investors (Walmart's top priority) who are mainly interested in profits. They pretty much want Walmart to make as much profit as they can which equals higher earnings per share. Investors are also interested in operating in minimum costs for example minimum wages. Minimum costs equals more profit which is what investors is mainly interested in. Customers (Walmart’s second priority) are interested in low prices as long as these good have acceptable quality. Americans tend to go for the lower prices because why not save your hard earned money and everyone knows Walmart has a low price guarantee. If someone likes to save money they will shop at Walmart. Employees (Walmart’s third priority) who have a

Walmart is known throughout the entire world as one of the most popular chain department stores. Actually, most have probably visited a Walmart store in the past week. Though Walmart stores seem to be a normal part of life the average person more than likely has little knowledge that pertains to Walmart’s success and business culture. This paper will guide one through the history of the organization, why Walmart is successful, what could threaten or open new opportunities, and how might they hold a competitive advantage.

Being such a large company with many stores and employees Wal-Mart faces many issues. Some of the issues the retail giant faces are; wages, gender discrimination, and health benefits. It seems too many that Wal-Marts has lost its way. When the recession hit Wal-Mart laid off many of its employees and because of that consumers feel the shelves are not being restock and they can’t find what they are looking for. According to Bloomberg Business Week Wal-Mart went from having 343 employees in a store in 2008 to 301 employees in a store in 2013. Even though the employee cut seems logical it is costing the retail giant business. There is no man power to keep the shelves stock and give customers the great customer service that Sam Walton envisioned. (Bloomberbusinessweek)

Walmart on the other hand has lower prices, higher exposure in different markets, click and collect model, over one hundred markets and six hundred pickup locations. In this market Walmart has swiftly expanded its online grocery services and has done the work and the research to gain competitive advantage over Amazon and other grocery stores that offer online and pick up orders (Daniels,

The key facts and critical issues in the Wal-Mart Revised Its Marketing Strategy, is that Wal-Mart must do better with their pricing. Wal-Mart is declining sales and reducing profits. If Wal-Mart wants their loyal customer to return, things need to change. Wal-Mart has been ranked the number one non–oil company on the Fortune500 for the past nine years (Huang, Hansen, Anderson 2012). Critical issues are that the CEO is looking at other grocery chains. Wal-Mart promise to keep its everyday low prices. The company is looking to increase its promotion. For example, radio advertising increase, radio messages, and invest more in social media. Some key facts are Wal-Mart competitors are trying to compete. The company has even change their shelf space

Regarding the target segment Walmart.com is trying to reach; recent research indicates that profitability is closely related to local strategy. (Harvard Business Review, September 2005) Local environments still have different tastes, business practices, cultural norms and other characteristics. Simply offering internet connection to those customers may not be enough to create consistent online sales form them. Local retailers may server these segments better and offer customized services due to their small customer base. Therefore, Walmart.com is facing two obstacles: local retailers and customer buying habits. Changing them may prove to be a difficult undertaking.

The success of Wal-Mart is due in large part to its ability to consistently produce high quality products at a low cost. This is very critical to the future success of Wal-Mart because it provides consistency to customers who are price sensitive. By committing themselves to "Everyday low prices," Wal-Mart assures customers that the products sold within their stores are competitive in reference to its retail competition. This low price strategy also provides Wal-Mart with a

Walmart serves nearly 260 million customers weekly across 27 different countries, both in stores and through its websites (“Fortune”, 2015). Walmart relies heavily on its proper and effective marketing strategies; Walmart would not be able to achieve the level of success without these strategies. Low prices, easy access for its customers, and social media campaigns are a few of the vital tactics Walmart has used in its marketing plan. “Save Money. Live Better” is Walmart’s mission in delivering customers products at the lowest prices. This low price strategy plays a marketing role that caters to customers who seek the lowest prices and with grocery stores that provide great deals (Brown, 2017). Walmart’s low cost business model is protected by its powerful supply and distribution chains throughout the world. Customers can expect the same cost efficient style in every Walmart store worldwide.

From the beginning, Walmart did not have many threats. However, not only the competition is different, several global retailers such as Target, Carrefour, Costco, and Amazon, are working hard to keep efficiency. They are trying to work together to shrink the prices difference between them. Walmart has facing difficulties from every single angle. Not only the company has internal labor relation problems, but also it has some external threats from its competitors. The company must work hard to get possible solutions against its competitors, and to solve any internal problems regarding its labor relations. Even though Walmart does not have any problems

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

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

As I sat down several weeks ago to begin writing this case study, I struggled with how I wanted to lay the paper out, however, when I opened Lee Scott’s 21st century leadership speech that was part of the required reading, the following quote struck me as the essence of the whole case study, so I would like to share it with you. You know, we are in uncharted territory as a business. You won’t find any case studies at the Harvard Business School highlighting answers for companies of our size and scope. If we were a country, we would be the 20th largest in the world. If

Walmart strives to bring good value to its customers under one roof. They provide a wide variety of goods and brands at competitive prices.

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.