Megatrends, Drivers, and Strategy

MEGATRENDS, DRIVERS, AND STRATEGY
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Megatrends, Drivers, and Strategy
Walmart is one of the largest retailers in the world, serving billions of consumers annually. The company is implementing strategies designed to take advantage of the megatrends and drivers. Online shopping is the strategy enforced by such megatrends as demographic and social change and technological breakthroughs. The drivers of these megatrends include digitization and social media. This paper focuses on applying the megatrend and drivers to the company’s strategy.
The major megatrend Walmart faces is technological breakthroughs, which have shaped modern corporations’ operations. Such breakthroughs have included computers, the internet, and interactive media, revolutionizing how businesses and consumers interact. The internet and digital gadgets make it possible for people to interact remotely. Such a phenomenon has been transformed by businesses to allow them to interact remotely with their consumers. This interaction goes beyond communication and encompasses the broader concept of e-commerce. This is illustrated through the emergence of major e-commerce brands, including Amazon. Today, digital investments are no longer optional for businesses since those who desire to survive through the megatrend must adapt (Angus, 2022). The behavior of corporations and consumers has changed due to the proliferation of the internet and other modern technologies. For example, the shopping preferences of consumers change and force companies to adapt. In many cases, it can be established that businesses digitize as an attempt to attract consumers. The millennials are often the targeted market for businesses pursuing digitization. This is the case for Walmart, whose digitization strategies include digital brands and online shopping (Min, 2019). The argument is that the company’s physical stores are already a massive success and could offer sustained competitiveness.
It can be argued that technological breakthroughs are the key driving megatrends for digitization, which necessitates such strategies as online shopping. Such a scenario can be summarized by the Internet of Things (IoT) concept. IoT describes a situation where digital devices are interconnected on a large scale to allow such practices as mobile connectivity. Technological breakthroughs have made sensor technologies cheaper and more accessible. At the same time, computing power has increased over 100 times in the past decade and a half. As a result, such applications as real-time analytics and artificial intelligence have shifted operations from local devices to edge computing solutions (Dahlqvist et al., 2019). In this case, growing mobile connectivity resulting from these developments allows such applications as e-commerce and online payment to take place. These developments also revolutionize business structures, with many companies acknowledging that online platforms offer critical opportunities for competitive advantage.
Demographic and social change is another ...