Wal Walmart's Electronic Commerce Platform

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.

When we compare walmart.com with amazon.com. Two of the biggest names in the industry are Amazon.com and Walmart, the latter of which has moved beyond its physical stores and begun to offer a variety of merchandise online. Amazon.com is one of the most recognizable names in the online retail industry. The site’s marketplace allows customers to purchase a wide variety of items online. And with a slew of third-party merchants in its roster, Amazon.com is a formidable presence indeed. Walmart is just as widely known of course, albeit in the real world. The company is a familiar name in the

Also, Amazon has emphasized on building “several distribution centers around the world to hasten deliveries”(Hof and Himelstein, 1999). Coupled with its software it provides a “laser-like focus on the buying experience”(IT Business Edge, 2012). Such a system and service is what draws customers towards Amazon and subsequently retains them.

As of January 2010, Amazon.com has three times the Internet sales revenue of the runner up, Staples. By offering a large amount of varied categories through its website and other international ones (Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.co.fr, and so on), it has managed to grow to a customer based company with over 30 million people. In addition, the online retail format enables the company to reduce costs of managing inventory (Amazon.com; online bookstore, 2008).

​Competition within the internet sales industry is fierce and innovation is the way internet retailers are looking to grab the top spot. Internet retailers such as Walmart are following in the path of competitors and building fulfillment centers left and right to allow for faster delivery to customers. Many internet retailers have explored the possibilities of drone delivery, using customers to deliver products to other customers on their way home, and allowing customers to pick up products out of lockers in stores so they don’t have to wait in line; these competitive strategies internet retailers are seeking to implement illustrate how far firms are willing to go to gain the upper-hand on one another (Forbes, 2012).

Both Amazon and Walmart are seeking to accomplish the same goal, to become the world’s largest retailer by providing customers with a seamless shopping experience. Both companies have their own strengths, with Amazon being the leader in the online retail space, while Walmart is the clear leader in the brick-and-mortar arena. As more online and brick-and-mortar retailers are eating into the market, both Amazon and Walmart must content with other companies as well as each other. Amazon and Walmart were both created and detonated extraordinary growth due to an innovative push unlike any other in their own respective arenas. “If either Amazon or Walmart is destined to come out on top, it must come from a massive innovation push, a willingness to

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.

Amazon’s fulfillment centers are valuable, rare, costly to imitate, and organized to captured value. Thus, they attribute to Amazon’s competitive advantage. Amazon Prime and 1-Click are also valuable to the organization. However, they can be replicated. Walmart launched a membership program to compete with Amazon’s Prime Service. With Walmart’s membership program customers receive free two-day shipping when they spend $35 or more on orders. Amazon Web Services is valuable, rare, costly to imitate and the organization has capture the value of it. Therefore, AWS has contributed to Amazon’s sustainable advantage. Amazon’s brand name and reputation have also given the company sustainable advantage. Amazon acquired enormous brand valuation in a short period of time. It is

In this report, Amazon has been found to be on the forefront towards exploiting market opportunities created by digital technologies. The company has resourcefully applied innovative digital technology to provide flexible merchandising, as well as personalized marketing services. Through the use of digital marketing technology, Amazon has been able to establish, maintain and strengthen a long term competitive advantage within its industry and beyond. As recommended in this report, the company needs to focus on steady improvement on its digital technology infrastructure based on the market environment trends, which include investing more in research and development.

Many consumers go for what appears to be cheapest and most convenient. The reality is, Amazon’s increasing dominance comes with high costs. “These consequences have gone largely unnoticed thanks to Amazon’s remarkable invisibility and the way its tentacles have quietly extended their reach” (LaVecchia, 2016). It is vital that consumers are aware of this superpower that is taking over.

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.

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

This paper reviews the supply chain management practices of Amazon.com (AMZN) and highlights findings in the framework of a Strengths – Weaknesses – Opportunities – Threats (SWOT) framework.

In concert with high rivalry in the industry, the ecommerce industry has seen large brick-and-mortar retailers making moves to catch up with Amazon. Amazon came to dominate the ecommerce industry through technology, innovation, a laser focus on customer experience and efficient operations. The company had a first mover advantage, but today, as traditional retailers look at growth in the ecommerce market and see it beginning to chip away at traditional retail’s share of the overall market (Exhibit 3), these companies are making moves to further increase their own sophistication. In October, Best Buy brought in former Expedia president, Scott Durschlag, to head its ecommerce business and to “boost its online transformation.” In 2011, Wal-Mart acquired Koomix, hoping to apply “artificial intelligence to commerce.” It also hired the well-regarded Silicon Valley engineer who was instrumental in the development of eBay’s infrastructure as its Chief Technological Officer. Wal-Mart and eBay both announced this fall that they

With the proliferation of communication and information technology, particularly the Internet, most business organizations have been at the forefront to join the e-commerce platform. Amazon is considered as one of the existing and largest e-business platform in the world. This report outlines Amazon’s strategic intent and key resources and capabilities. In addition, the report will also include an analysis of the company 's assets and capabilities that have provided it a sustainable competitive edge as well as, the recommended future strategy of the giant online organization. Amazon defines its line of business operations based on product and service sales, fulfillment, digital content subscriptions, publishing, and co-branded cards. The company 's line of business is defined as an online store, Internet service provision, and the Kindle ecosystem. This project will explore the truth that has made the online company to be considered as the top online retailer, which mainly focuses on strategy. This report also outlines how inventories play a fundamental role in the organization 's business or corporate strategy. The other issues covered in the report include the approach used by the online company deal with the supply chain and the reason behind fast shipping fast. The paper will outline the finance statute of the company and whether the finance effect will bar the organization from developing in future. In order to achieve the answer to the questions