Walmart
Essay by review • December 12, 2010 • Essay • 316 Words (2 Pages) • 1,138 Views
** Wal-Mart is the World's largest grocery retailer and control of its empire, despite its IT advantages, could leave it weak in some areas due to the huge span of control.
* Since Wal-Mart sell products across many sectors (such as clothing, food, or stationary), it may not have the flexibility of some of its more focused competitors.
* The company is global, but has has a presence in relatively few countries Worldwide.
Opportunities
* To take over, merge with, or form strategic alliances with other global retailers, focusing on specific markets such as Europe or the Greater China Region.
* The stores are currently only trade in a relatively small number of countries. Therefore there are tremendous opportunities for future business in expanding consumer markets, such as China and India.
* New locations and store types offer Wal-Mart opportunities to exploit market development. They diversified from large super centres, to local and mall-based sites.
* Opportunities exist for Wal-Mart to continue with its current strategy of large, super centres.
Threats
* Being number one means that you are the target of competition, locally and globally.
* Being a global retailer means that you are exposed to political problems in the countries that you operate in.
* The cost of producing many consumer products tends to have fallen because of lower manufacturing costs. Manufacturing cost have fallen due to outsourcing to low-cost regions of the World. This has lead to price competition, resulting in price deflation in some ranges. Intense price competition is a threat.
'Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world's largest retailer, with $256.3 billion in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2004. The company employs 1.6 million associates worldwide through more than 3,600 facilities in the United States and more than 1,570 units . . .more? Go toWal-Mart Facts
Disclaimer: This case study has been compiled from information freely available from public sources. It is merely intended to be used for educational purposes only.
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