Why Walmart Has the Ability to Offer the Lowest Price

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).

Wal-Mart continually advertises their prices to be substantially lower than their competitors. The truth is, most Wal-Mart items do not

Having strong presence in the retail industry, the firm expanded business to offer second hand car. The firm leverage on its competencies to provide its own product to consumer. Also, Wal-Mart works heavily with its suppliers. This symbiotic relationship can be seen as vertical integration due to the level at which Wal-Mart analyses its suppliers and improves their manufacturing processes. Wal-Mart definitely has the business strategy of Low Cost Leadership. They do nothing to really differentiate themselves from competitors and provide no-frills self-service stores that always provide the lowest prices. Wal-Mart has built enough clout with suppliers that they can dictate the prices and go in and change suppliers manufacturing processes in order to wring out more and more savings for the consumer.

The prices at Wal-Mart are always low. They even price match other stores. ThisWhich means if you bring in a sales paper with, for instance, a microwave that’s $45 and Wal-Mart has the same one for $65, they will sell it to you for $45. If they have something marked lower than what it really is they sell it to you for that price, even if it’s a big difference. You definitely get more for your money at Wal-Mart.

Walmart has kept its prices so low by cutting-edge technology, corporate culture and put in their efforts to make the suppliers to lower the prices and sell goods as low as possible. The basic goal of Walmart is to keep their prices low and it has always been successful at this.

Evidently, Wal-Mart is not doing anything to differentiate itself from rivals. It gives no frills to self-service outlets always providing the cheapest prices. Through a well-built influence with suppliers, the company has gained the power to manipulate prices and amend manufacturing procedures thus wringing out more savings for its customers. All that the company does from the frequent calls to suppliers to doubling up execs in hotel rooms aimed at saving the

Wal-Mart is widely recognized as one of the leading discount variety store chains. It is the nations largest discount department store chain, and also one of the largest discounters in the nation in terms of sales dollars.

Wal-Mart’s sheer size gives it unrestrained economic power which allows it to drive down costs in the retail and manufacturing sectors and to enact its own standards with regards to its work force.

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

The main objective of a low-cost provider is to achieve a lower overall cost than its main competitors and rivals by means of underpricing (Gamble, 93). This is also known as price advantage in order to attract customers. Companies that use this strategy will achieve high sales volumes while striving for low cost margins. For example, Wal-Mart is known to have considerable low prices that attract a broad spectrum of customers. People who shop at Wal-Mart are familiar with their “Rollback Prices” which focus on the idea of everyday low prices that are sold at a far cheaper rate than its main competitors. They are able to sustain these prices because of a successful supply chain market. Many of the products they sell are from foreign and domestic markets that focus on a lower price demand. This allows Wal-Mart to sell their products at lower prices at a high volume. Basically, they buy a huge quantity in volume in order to achieve a lower price to gain a higher profit.

Customers influence Wal-Mart by buying their products. However, Wal-Mart doesn’t provide arm security on the parking lots which has cause to many incidences such as shooting, raping and kidnapping.

Competition among retailers is aggressive, as the demand side of the industry is driven by consumers who expect to get the best value for their money. “Competitive advantage is anything a company has, or does better, that customers value but the competition cannot match” (Romero, 2005). Walmart has a sustainable competitive advantage over other retailers, largely due to their centralized focus of cost leadership and differentiation strategies.

“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.

* SHOW: These are essentials that Walmart must carry to maintain its “one stop” shopping reputation, i.e. hardware. Walmart’s alternative pricing strategy is the “everyday low pricing and discount pricing” by offering short term price cutting tactics in form of coupons, rebates and their guaranteed ‘match it’ they have successfully maintained low pricing on their products.

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