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Walmart: Pest Analysis

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Question 2
Please apply the PEST analysis to the Wal-Marts case study.

"The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want. And really, if you think about it from your point of view as a customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of good-quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; free parking; a pleasant shopping experience."

- Sam Walton (1918-1992)

Wal-Mart is the third largest company in the world by revenue and the largest retailer in the world. Its sales for fiscal year 2011-2012 were USD446 Billion with profits of USD16.5Billion. Of its revenue, 28.4% is generated outside of its country of origin of …show more content…

Companies were restricted from constructing stores with more than 800m2 in areas not designated for retailing. (Howe, 2003)This meant that large stores were restricted to town centres but approvals required anywhere from 1-4 years. This meant that Wal-Mart could not enter via a greenfield strategy where they could build their stores from scratch and model them in the manner that was similar to in America. Therefore Wal-Mart chose to purchase existing chains and retrofit them into the Wal-Mart way. This was particularly detrimental to Wal-Mart as they were unable to recreate the Supercentres that they were known for in America. (Arndt, 2003) The concept of Supercentres was such that shoppers could buy everything from one location and the more time they spent within the premises, the more they would spend.

Wal-Mart’s first entered the German market via the acquisition of Wertkauf. However as they sought to increase market share, they made the purchase of Spar who was then the weakest player in the German market. This contributed significantly to its lack of success. Spar had run down stores and were heterogeneous in size and format. It also had the industries’ lowest turnover per sq. meter of floor area resulting in higher logistics costs and lower returns. (Arndt, 2003) Geographically, they were mainly in less well-off areas and this meant that purchasing power of shoppers in the area was

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