Walmart's Compensation Plan Outline

(1) Wal-Mart’s promotional strategy of “everyday-low-prices” meant offering customers brand name merchandise for less than department and specialty store prices.

Sam Walton’s extraordinary business strategies drove Walmart to its success and their key focus was customer satisfaction. As part of their customer centric initiatives Walmart had set up a unique pricing strategy with their “Every Day Low Prices” EDLP (Karen Robson, 2013). They would offer customers their daily needs at the lowest possible price to drive Walmart’s growth in the United States (Karen Robson, 2013) . Their pricing strategy was different than other major retailers in the U.S at the time; this provided an advantage towards rapid success and expansion (Karen Robson, 2013).

As the world’s largest retail store in the world, Walmart wants to be in every market that they can be prosperous in. They know they rule the United States market, so why not try to expand overseas and dominate those markets as well. Now that they have reached limits on expansion here in the U.S., the next step was to test the water in other nations. As they began to go international, there were many critics saying they will never make it because their business practices and culture wouldn’t work in other countries. Yet the company’s globalization efforts progressed at a rapid pace. Its more than 4,263 international retail units employ more than 660,000

The evolution of Wal-mart from the early 1960s to the present day has set a benchmark that few can achieve. Wal-mart executives have been successful nationally as well as globally. The knowledge and expertise in economics have made Wal-mart a global giant. The research completed is the final recommendations by the members of research team C and will address questions regarding global competition and issues of the organizations ability to expand or reduce current operations.

Having a high turnover rate is the major effect of these challenges with Wal-Mart’s compensation and benefits program. If employees are dissatisfied with their pay they are more than likely going to find another job. People need to support themselves and their families and without proper pay it is not possible. Wal-Mart employees have been quitting left and right because they have found another company that will pay them a better and fairer wage for the same position. The high number of employees quitting due to low wages has caused Wal-Mart to have a high turnover rate. However, this is not Wal-Marts only reason for such a high turnover rate. The lack of health insurance benefits offered to employees is the main and perhaps the most important cause of high turnover rate for Wal-Mart. People need health insurance not only for themselves but for their families as well. Without health insurance Wal-Marts workers are not able to see doctors when they or their family gets sick or even for a regular checkup. Since their employees are not getting the health benefits needed they are leaving Wal-Mart to find another company that will give them the health benefits needed and for a lower out of pocket premium.

When it comes to retail giants, Walmart stands tallest by a very large margin. In fact, Walmart’s retail sales more than tripled their closest competitor in 2015 (“STORES top retailers 2016,” 2016). Walmart has consistently used the same marketing strategy for many years. Their “Everyday Low Price” strategy is a well-known advertisement moniker and has driven repeat sales to customers for years (Ferguson, 2015). Another familiar sign

Wal-Mart is the world's largest retail and departmental store chain. Having business operations in 27 countries with 69 different brand names, Wal-Mart is able to serve a huge number of customers per day. Wal-Mart is the fastest growing and the most successful retail brand in the world. The factors which make it the strongest brand in its industry include large customer base, sound financial strength, strong brand image, and huge supply chain network. Wal-Mart has certain weaknesses in its operations and business setup like low acceptability of certain products, high employee turnover, and less recognition of newly introduced brands. These weaknesses can be overcome by availing attractive opportunities from the market and investing more in the most profitable areas. Wal-Mart faces the biggest threat from its competitors and ever-changing customer preferences.

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.

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

“Always low prices”, is the first thing you think of when you think about one of the most successful companies around the world, Wal-Mart. For years they stand as a well know company due to their everyday low prices and variety of products. Their mission statement is “Saving people money so that they can live better”. They have chosen their mission statement wisely yet there is a lot of controversy when it comes to this International Company.

Wal-Mart has established their selves as a market leader by using simple strategy of offering merchandise at lower prices. By the use of efficient logistics that consist of the latest technology and inventory management processes, Wal-Mart improve its buying power, scale of operations, and minimizes cost for the company as one of their strengths (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. SWOT Analysis 2006).

Price has always been the key strategy in Wal-Mart’s marketing strategy. The success of Wal-Mart’s low price philosophy and marketing campaigns has been instrumental to the company’s success in the past half century. It is clear that from Sam Walton’s first store in Bentonville, Arkansas in 1950 to the 6200 stores worldwide as of 2006, Wal-Mart has utilized the price strategy of the marketing mix to become one of the most successful companies in

Wal-Mart’s slogan “Everyday Low Prices” is the milestone of their communication with the public as well as their basic business principle. The corporation mainly used word-of-mouth advertising and spent a lot less on marketing than the industry competitors. A strong emphasis was put on patriotism and national causes, when it comes to the U.S. market.

Everyday Low Prices. The strategy of ‘Everyday low prices’ is the core of Walmart’s competitive advantage as it has earned Walmart’s status today. It is a main factor differentiating Walmart from its competitors. Since the sources to achieving this competitive advantage are sustainable, the strategy is also sustainable.

They offer brand name merchandise for less than department and specialty stores using the every day low prices method. As a consequence fewer promotions are necessary and therefore the advertising costs are only 1.5% of discount store sales. The direct competitors spend on average 2.1%!
Another distinctive part of the promotional strategy is the no 'risk/satisfactions guaranteed policy' which helps to attract the last suspicious customers. A further important component of the promotional and purchasing strategy entailed the attempt to switch as many foreign-sourced products to American-made ones. Due to the switches more than 41,000 jobs have been created for the American workforce. It is assumable that this has led to lower purchase costs, more sales and that it especially has boosted the image of Wal*Mart. The most remarkable aspect of their promotion philosophy is that they want to make them selfs more personal and customer-minded by so called 'people greeters'.
What also can be seen as part of their promotional strategy is the fact that Wal*Mart stores are rather new and young. Last but not least the promotional and pricing strategy to introduce shelf-labeling rather than product price tags reduced further costs.

In 1993 the top five discount retailers accounted for 71% of the industry sales. Wal*Mart is one of these five which means that they have a strong position in a big market segment with only four directly comparable