Walmart is an American multinational retail store chain which has been in the industry for more than 50 years now. With its growth each year, Walmart has grown to have their stores in almost 30 countries now. Walmart has been known as the leader in terms of sustainability, philanthropy and providing employment opportunities to millions of people around the world. Walmart operates on the framework of providing everything that a household would need under one roof, in all prices and brands. Thus following a strategy based of ‘everyday low prices’.
One of the factors that make Walmart stand out as compared to the competitors is their customer-focused strategy. They have always focused on delivering according to their customer’s needs. This is the reason that they have products within all price ranges so that people can buy according to what they need. This also speaks out to the fact that it targets mass market, keeping products for everyone. So there are products for everyone, in all varieties and all prices. Due to this the consumers are able to compare the prices at the time of shopping and select their choice of product accordingly.
Also, they focus on increasing their inventory every day. If there is a new product available in the market, it will be available in Walmart. This way they are able to provide convenience to their customers so that they do not opt for any of their competitors for their needs.
Another factor is their distribution network which makes them able to deliver products to their customers timely and effectively. They have been able to develop partnerships with the manufacturers and vendors due to which they are able to reduce the price that they sell their products in. Thus this makes Walmart being able to sell at the lowest prices as compared to the competitors and still being able to make profits and gaining the majority of shares in the market.
Moreover, their location also adds up to their advantage because their strategy is to locate their stores within the range of most of their customers. This makes it convenient for customers to access Walmart stores, as well as results in increased profits for the company.
All these factors add up and result in increased growth of Walmart each year. Walmart has also been able to increase its customer scale as well as market share because of the online shopping that Walmart has introduced and is able to compete against other big retail giants in online retail markets like Amazon. These are the reasons why Walmart has been able to stand out as compared to its competitors over the period of 50 years. Not only that, it has been able to maintain long-term relationships with its customers and maintain its position in the industry and maintaining their own competitive advantage in the very competitive industry.
References
About Us. Retrieved December 21, 2017, from https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story
Team, T. (2015, October 5). Three Ways Walmart Is Making Big Strides In Its Battle Against Online Retailers. Retrieved December 21, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/10/05/three-ways-walmart-is-making-big-strides-in-its-battle-against-online-retailers/#1e9f03efbb9a
Wal-Mart Stores on the Forbes Global 2000 List. Retrieved December 21, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/companies/wal-mart-stores/