Walmart’s Key Retail Management and Marketing Strategies (Essay Sample)

Walmart’s Key Retail Management and Marketing Strategies
Executive Summary
Retail management and marketing strategy is unique from other strategies as it deals with in-store purchases. Walmart is among the globe's major multinational retailers that make huge sales. The firm owns several stores, which it builds and vends some to real estate investors then lets them back to maximize its sales and reduce operating costs. Walmart’s divisions are Global eCommerce, Sam's Club, Walmart International, and Walmart U.S.A, which emphasizes supercenters because they comprise a lot of groceries. Other Walmart U.S.A’s departments are Walmart discount store and Walmart neighborhood market. Walmart's retail benefits of selling products at cheap prices include the increase in sales volume and reaching wider audiences. The firm’s retail limitations of selling the products at cheap prices comprise lowering its credibility, inability to offer big discounts like competitors, and customers’ perception that a company's goods are of low quality. Walmart's external forces that may have influenced its strategic decisions are political, economic, sociocultural, technological, environmental, and legal factors. On the other hand, internal factors that may have influenced Walmart’s strategic decisions are location, layout design, and supply chain management strategies. All these makes Walmart to have several opportunities and a few threats. Therefore, the firm should act proactively to address its threats and maximize the opportunities.
Introduction
Retail management and marketing strategy is unique from other strategies, since, it deals with in-store purchases. Walmart is among the globe's major multinational retailers that make enormous revenue. According to Jindal et al. (2020), the firm started operating in 1962, was incorporated in 1969, and its head office is in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walton's family started the company and continue to control it up to date. The firm is all over the world and has over 11,500 retail stores in over 25 nations (Jindal et al.). Walmart's e-retailers are in more than 10 countries and the firm distributes superior products at low prices (Wu et al. 2020). The company continues to build its name, and upholds strong logistics and high efficacy. Wu et al. assert that originally, Walmart began with some physical retail stores, however, as the millennium started, the firm ventured into e-retail commerce. In 2009, the company launched its marketplace, which it uses to partner with other vendors to get adequate products for its clients (Wu et al.). Therefore, the firm's marketplace allows third-party vendors to list items on its. Many people visit walmart.com every day, hence, vending on that marketplace highly promotes sellers' products. Nevertheless, before a vendor plans to visit the website, it is essential to get the correct strategies for his or her business. If a seller does not get the right strategy, the probability of failing to convert customers becomes higher than that of a serious vendor.
Walmart's Retail Space
Walmart owns several stores, which it builds. However, the firm vends some stores to real estate investors then lets them back. According to Allgrunn and Weinandt (2016), the company organizes its operations into 4 departments. The following are the divisions. Global eCommerce, Walmart International, Sam's Club, and Walmart U.S.A. Walmart provides numerous retail setups in all the departments, which comprise digital retail, restaurants, supermarkets, drugstores, and supercenters.
Global eCommerce
Global eCommerce's head office is in San Bruno, California and its Chief Executive Officer is Marc Lore. The department retails online for all international brands, Walmart U.S.A., and Sam's Club (Allgrunn & Weinandt 2016). Global eCommerce has many locations in California and Oregon that include Portland and Brisbane. International locations comprise Shanghai in China, Bungalore in India, and Leeds in the U.K.
Sam's Club
Sam's Club whose Chief Executive Officer is Kathryn McLay consists of warehouse clubs, which vend bulky foodstuffs and general products. Jalbert (2019) posits that Sam's Club locations and average club sizes vary between 3,000 and 15,000 metres2, and 12,000 and 13,000 metres2 respectively. Walmart started the first Sam's Club in Oklahoma's Midwest City in 1983. The firm chose the name since Sam Walton founded it. Jalbert asserts that, in 2019 alone, the company's revenue was more than U.S. $57 billion and ran over 550 membership warehouse clubs. Membership at Sam's Club is cheap.
Walmart International
Walmart International has several stores and its Chief Executive Officer is Judith McKenna. Jindal et al. (2020) assert that the division has over 6,000 stores and more than 700,000 employees in over 25 nations that are outside the U.S. Countries such as the U.K, Argentina, and Brazil exclusively own the firm's operations. According to Jindal et al., in 2019 alone, the company's revenue was more than U.S. $120 billion. Jindal et al. continue to state that international retailers and wholesalers vary between 130 and 17,000 metres2, and 2,300 and 14,000 metres2 respectively. Walmart International leads in private sector employment in Mexico and U.S.A. Furthermore, the firm is among the largest private-sector employers in Canada.
Walmart U.S.A
Walmart U.S.A whose Chief Executive Officer is John Furner is the corporation's largest department. Adivar, Huseyinoglu, and Christopher (2019) state that the division's revenue was more than US$330 billion in 2019. The department has three retail formats, which are Walmart neighborhood market, Walmart supercenter, and Walmart discount store. The division's discount stores vend various non-grocery items. Walmart U.S.A has more than 4,700 discount stores with the majority of U.S citizens residing near the stores (Adivar et al.). Clients love to shop at discount stores because they save some cash. However, Walmart U.S.A is emphasizing supercenters because they comprise a lot of groceries.
Walmart Supercenters
These supercenters are big and provide their services as merchandisers and supermarkets. The firm's supercenters are hypermarkets whose sizes vary between 6,400 and 24,200 metres2, hence, average about 16,500 metres2 (Gopalakrishna, Subramanian, & Fleischmann 2016). The supercenters stock items such as hens and meat, milk, and fresh seafood. Most of these places have fast food outlets, hair salons, optical centers, and garden centers. The supercenters feature McDonald's restaurants. However, in early 2000, the company declared that it might not continue with McDonald's restaurants in its new stores because of nutritional worries. Supercenters opening up after that period replace McDonald's with Subways. Moreover, some places have gas stations selling fuel that firms such as Murphy U.S and USA Gasoline distribute. Gopalakrishna et al. posit that the first supercenter started operating around 1987 in Washington, Missouri. Hypermart U.S.A, which is similar to a supercenter began to operate about 1986 in Garland, Texas, but later changed to supercenters (Gopalakrishna et al.). The U.S has over 3,500 Walmart supercenters in all its states except Hawaii with the world's largest supercenter that covers more than 23,000 meters2 on two floors situated in Albany, New York (Hosler 2019). According to Hosler, a supercenter vends about 110,000 products, although, Walmart no longer uses the "supercenter" title in its stores. The company simply refers to its supercenters as "Walmart".
Walmart Discount Store
Walmart discount stores resemble departmental stores but sell their products cheaply and comprise numerous domestic items, which customers do not find in departmental stores. Such products include foodstuffs, washing materials, and toiletries. Hosler (2019) states that Walmart no longer uses the word "discount" in its stores. The company simply refers to its discount stores as "Walmart". These stores' sizes vary between 2,800 and 19,000 metres2, hence, average about 9,800 metres2 (Adivar, Huseyinoglu, and Christopher 2019). The discount stores sell general products and some foodstuffs with some having an extended grocery section. Several discount stores have pharmacies, garden centers, bank branches, optical centers, and fast-food outlets. Furthermore, some stores have fuel stations, although, supercenters have beaten them. Adivar et al. posit that in 1990, Walmart started its first Bud's Discount area in Bentonville. The company opened the locations to satisfy its leases in towns as its stores closed and went to the newly-constructed supercenters. Therefore, Discount Stores continue to reduce.