A Growth Strategy Of Walmart: Globalization

Walmart Name Affiliation WALMART Globalization and the advanced technologies in marketing and service delivery take competition in the retail industry to another level. The key industry players have no choice but taking to the new trends and incorporating the new improved systems for a more satisfied customer, improved sales returns, and increased market share. It is a revolutionary change catalyzed by the rapid globalization and informatization of a highly competitive industry seeking to do away with the traditional chain stores to the more advanced on-line platform commonly known as e-commerce. One of the major organization in the industry that maintains its influence in the market through its growth strategy is Walmart. The retail chain store remains in the hearts of many of its customers albeit the emergence of e-commerce leaders such as Amazon. Founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, the retail chain store transitioned over a period of four decades to become the largest private employer in the United States tailing the federal government by only a small margin (Lecavalier, 2011). The impressive growth is built around its comprehensive strategy of customer satisfaction through product pricing, service delivery, and territorial presence through a well-organized network of all its stakeholders. Walmart has approximately over 8,000 stores in 15 countries around the globe with a labor force of more than 2.1 million employees. The retail giant from Arkansas also boasts of an impressive 200 million visitors to its stores all over the world every week, a fete not shared by many retail chains in the industry. Acquiring such status shows that Walmart’s distribution systems, electronic data systems, and marketing strategies are models in the industry even though there exist some underlying challenges. Sam Walton capitalized on making profits through higher sales volumes achieved through lower prices on its products. Instead of maximizing profits through higher margins, the founder reversed the common cycle and focused on an improved supply chain system to cut down the average retail prices (Lecavalier, 2011). The high volume-low prices business model is what catapulted the retail chain to the great heights it currently enjoys. The business model is applied to all its stores and since its launch, Walmart is now competing on a global scale with other non-industry players from the lucrative oil and gas industry. In regards to returns on revenue and comparison to other world economies, Walmart ranks 26th, a position lower than Austria among the world’s largest economies. The reach of global markets outside its country of origin indicates it global ambition which it is still pursuing to reach even the third world countries. The retail firm is now focusing on diversification of its service delivery and its stores on a universal scale to penetrate the urban market. The solution to the two challenges aims at improving its presence in the online market and increasing its clientele base through territorial expansion into cities, a m...