Walmart China Case Analysis Essay

In 1998 Wal-Mart became one of the first international retailers in China. After many frustrations and difficulties Wal-Mart became the 20th largest retailer in China at the end of 2005, with 59 stores. In the year 2006 the company outbid its largest competitor in China and acquired Trust-Mart, a chain of over 100 super centers located in 20 cities in China. This acquisition made Wal-Mart the largest network of food and department stores in China.

Walmart faced strong entrenched competition in Canada and Europe. In these developed countries, they couldn’t gain critical mass through internal growth, so they had to acquire companies that have been in the market already. They acquired Woolco, a money losing operation, applied many of the American business practices, and within a few years, the Canadian operations were successful. They have 317 stores, and they account for more than 35 percent of the Canadian discount and department store market. In Europe, Walmart entered Germany by acquiring the Wertkauf hypermarket chain in 1998 and entered the UK by acquiring the 229-store ASDA group. They the leader and are now losing ground to Tesco. A major problem for Walmart in the European market is overexpansion. Accompanied with the famous “Always low prices” approach, they met large resistance from the competition and regulators. Large price wars began because Walmart was accused of underselling the competition. They struggled to build a strong competitive base in German losing more than $1 billion. They were unable to create a competitive advantage, so they sold their operations to a competitor, Metro. They also faced problems in Korea, so

Wal-Mart has preferred to expand internationally by buying existing operations and converting them to Wal-Mart stores. The company entered Canada by purchasing the Woolco chain that was competing with Kmart in that market, and it entered Mexico in much the same way. The company entered Europe by purchasing the Asda stores in the United Kingdom and an operation in Germany that later failed. Wal-Mart entered foreign markets via acquisition for a couple of reasons. The first is that the company relies on real estate as the cornerstone of its business. The second is that as a cost leader, Wal-Mart needed to build up economies of scale that would allow it to enjoy strong bargaining power in these markets immediately. Moreover, moving rapidly into a market minimizing the ability of competitors to register an adequate response.

Within less than 30 years, Wal-Mart had transformed from a small rural retailer in Arkansas into the largest retailer in the U.S. In order to continue this rapid growth, the company had started to pursue international expansion grounded in the belief that the firm’s business model of offering quality products at low prices and great customer service would appeal to consumers everywhere around the world (p.8)[1]. China was of particular interest in going international as Wal-Mart’s top management held the opinion that it was the only market in which the firm’s success story in the U.S. could be repeated (p.2/8). However, in 2005 (nine years after its

Inventory from China is now reaching 18 billion dollars, and has increased 20 percent over the past two years. Currently over 5,000 suppliers have steady alliances with Wal-Mart. Not only does this benefit U.S. customers by keeping prices down, but it keeps the Wal-Mart corp. very well received by the Chinese people. A large portion of the world's population is located in China being a respected company in this part of the world will greatly increase sales. Wal-Mart is, however, responsible for 10 percent of the countries trade deficit to China.

The article is about the serious issue in multinational retailing corporations, such as Wal-mart. Wal-mart is an American multinational retailing corporations which operate as a chain of hypermarket, discount department stores and grocery stores. Retailing is a process of selling consumer goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn profit. According to The Fortune Global 500 fiscal year of 2016, Walmart is ranked as the highest most lucrative company in the world with a revenue of $482.1 billion.

Wal-Mart has expanded beyond the United States, they have gone global. Wal-Mart continues to offer food and goods at a low price and continue to thrive by using the mission statement that the retail giant was built upon which is great customer service and low prices.

What are the problems that Wal-Mart has faced, and what has the company done to address them?

Wal-Mart is the number one retailer in the world in both sales and earnings, dwarfing many of its retail competitors. It offers a full assortment of products ranging from clothing to electronics. It currently has 6000 locations predominately within the United States with over $312.4 Billion in net sales during 2006. In addition to its strong domestic presence, Wal-Mart has expanded aggressively to Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico with over 1000 locations within those countries. This expansion can potentially create greater economies of scale for Wal-Mart services and merchandise. The synergies created by expansion will also drive profitability in the future by providing goods and services at even lower costs to consumers. In order to enter foreign markets successful, Wal-Mart engages in both joint ventures and acquisitions. By utilizing this method, Wal-Mart intends to leverage foreign retailer's market knowledge with its own core competencies of merchandising and supply chain management (Stilgoe, 2003).

Wal-Mart is a world-wide active American retail trade company and currently the largest retail company in the world. Beginning in 1962, Wal-Mart has made the transition from a small firm in Arkansas to the largest employer with 3, 800 store units in the United States with record revenues today. But nevertheless, since Wal-Mart launched its online branch, it had to suffer from substantial setbacks from competitors such as Amazon.com or Ebay.

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

Q2. How would you explain wal mart choice of countries during the early stages of international expansion in the 1990 's.

Ans:Wal-Mart,Inc runs a chain of large, discount department stores.it is the world’s largest public corporation by revenue. Walmart is the largest private employer and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. Walmart is one of the best known industries all over the world. Its concentration of a single business strategy is the basis of its success over the decades by this strategy without having to rely upon diversification to sustain its growth and competitive advantage. The leading marketing strategies of Wal-Mart are low prices, service and smile. However by adapting this strategy, it has risked itself by putting all of a company’s egg in one industry basket. While its global strategy worked elsewhere, the results were bad in Germany and Korea that Wal-Mart withdrew from those countries.

However, when the company moved into China, it made some major labor concessions. Not only unions into China, it also allowed branch of the Communist Party at Walmart’s Chinese headquarters.

There was a lack of international market experience since the China market was the second