Running head: WALMART STORES

Walmart Stores
Name:
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Walmart Stores

The significance of picking Walmart Stores as the business of analysis is that it faces
immense growth as a result of the strategies it employs and its ability to maintain its
competitiveness in the market. Walmart makes value for its customers by continually reducing its
costs on the goods and services it offers. The company's ability to maintain its top position in the
market boosts its current status since the competitors falter to compete with it in areas that
concern costs and prices. Walmart operates several large discount department stores combining
them with the participation obligatory warehouse stores.
Walmart currently organizes its operations into three distinct categories. These categories
are the Walmart Stores U.S., the Sam's Club, and the Walmart International. Besides, it entails
three retail layouts that consist of discount stores, Supercenters, and the Neighborhood Markets.
Sam's Club is a series of warehouse clubs that trade groceries and general merchandise in vast
amounts. They are participatory stores where customers being the members are required to
purchase memberships yearly to shop. Currently, Walmart International boasts of more than
4,000 stores in 14 other countries apart from the United States. It is the largest non-governmental
employer in both Mexico and the United States.
There are several changes that Walmart underwent to facilitate its success in the business
world. One of these changes is that the company decided to implement the low-cost leadership
strategy as its primary policy. The use of this system led to the business making high returns on
capital and profits in its market operations. A wide range of customers gets attracted by the
variety of goods and services supplied by the enterprise at low costs. It attained a cost advantage
by monitoring its cost agents and persistently removing the cost proficiencies out of its supply
chain (Brunn, 2006).

WALMART STORES

Walmart collaborated with suppliers that dominated their categories, those that had strong
brand names, and with complete product lines to make its ability to compete strongly. The
procurement department spent substantial time holding meetings with vendors and trying to
understand their cost configuration. The collaboration with other suppliers was also a strategic
change that occurred in the enterprise as it strived to achieve success in the market.
Walmart's biggest change is the expansion of its operations to an international level. The
business wanted to show higher levels of sales and profits to fulfill the market expectations of the
capital market. Globalization of the company was also a means to meet the needs of the
employees working in the enterprise (Brunn, 2006). The change was facilitated by the fact that
the company had saturated most of the markets in the United States, and it was finding it hard to
continue confining its activities to the country. Walmart benefited from globalization by
manipulating its incredible purchasing power with other big suppliers within. It could also make
use of the knowledge it had developed within the country and capabilities in areas such as the
effective consumption of technology and efficient store management.
As the company strived to attain low prices for the customers, it incorporated technology
to act as an innovator in the way the stores track records leading to the costs being lowered. The
implementation of technology became a key factor in the companys supply chain. It acts as the
pillar of the supply chain in the marketing operations of the firm. As a result, Walmart possesses
the biggest information technology infrastructure than any other private company in the world
(White & Bruton, 2011). The employment of Informatics by Walmart is a change that helps the
company in making accurate demand prediction and foretell the inventory levels. The change
also helps in creating efficient transport routes and manage a good relationship with the
customers.

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The success and the change brought about by the innovation of the company was also
facilitated by the way Walmart shared its information with all their business partners. The supply
chain management strategy used by the company gave it several sustainable competitive
advantages over its competitors. These competitive advantages include lower product costs,
lower rates of charges for carrying inventory, improved variety in the store, and an extremely
competitive pricing for the customers (Grant & Jordan, 2015). The strategy has enabled the
company to dominate in the competitive international market. As technology changes, Walmart
focuses more on the innovation processes and systems to foster improvements in its supply chain
and reach greater efficiency.
Most of the changes that Walmart has undergone over time are mainly based on
strategies. The changes happen to be positive ones since the implementation of the various
strategies by the company play a big role in the current success of the business. The pricing
strategy ensures that the change experienced by the corporation is prevalent. This becomes
evident when most of the companies are failing and suffering losses due to a failing economy.
Walmart appears unaffected since their low prices ensure that there sales activities move on.
Also, the current status of the company is as a result of the success and the comparative
advantage that the company possesses in the market that arise from the strategic changes that the
company has undergone.

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References

Brunn, S. (2006). Wal-Mart world: the world's biggest corporation in the global economy. New
York: Routledge.
Grant, R. & Jordan, J. (2015). Foundations of strategy. Chichester, West Sussex, United
Kingdom: Wiley.
White, M. & Bruton, G. (2011). The management of technology and innovation: a strategic
approach. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.