Research Paper: Wal-Mart Stores

Research Paper: Wal-Mart Stores

History of Wal-Mart Stores

From humble beginning to redefining the retail brand, Walmart started as an experiment of its founder Same Walton. The hope of Sam when establishing the company was that everything would work in the consumer-driven post ware market of the 1950s in the United States. After the successful running of Ben Franklin's variety in the 1950s, Sam Walton came up with the idea of opening the first Walmart store in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas (Akhtar, par 3). The historical establishment of the store at the time was to help people save money so that they could live better. From the single store in the early 1960s, Walmart expanded its business outside Arkansas throughout the rest of Southern United States by the 1980s. For instance, after establishing the company, it took three years to open 24 more stores within the state of Arkansas. It indicates Sam was strategical in coming up with Walmart stores' business idea as it made him build it on an unshakeable foundation.

Walmart's company has been most successful since its establishment 57 years ago, an indication that it has fulfilled the grand vision of its founder Sam Walton. Historically, the company was founded to build customer-focused advertising campaigns and build warehouses that are close to its store, thereby making it easier and cheaper to distribute its products and services. Essentially, the establishment of consumer-focused advertisement and pricing control contributed to the successful growth of Walmart company. By 1990, Walmart had become the largest retailer in the United States and started to open new stores across the globe. Also, three years after the death of the company founder in 1995, it doubled its sales, indicating that it focused on building its brand to be customer preference in the market. In that year, the company registered positive earnings after the management risked borrowing funds to open more stores and superstores worldwide (Ramadani et al, 46). Although the company debt pilled, the management risk paid off as Walmart earned cash it needed, thus repaying its financial loans. Therefore, it is clear Walmart focused on its vision and mission, which made it grow big, becoming the largest private employer in the U.S and the entire world. Notably, Walmart by 2001 surpassed Exxon-Mobile as the wealthiest company in the world. This positive growth of Walmart was experienced after the death of its founder Sam Walton as the company was triggered to chat a new path, something that saw it expand globally at an increased pace. It is clear from the company information that the death of its founder Sam Walton opened the new path that led to positive growth in terms of sales and returns on investment. The breakthrough of Walmart in the market made it knockout down some of the traditional supermarket chains in the business market (Akhtar, par 9). Looking at the company's growth trend, it is true that after every end of the decade, Walmart has become one of the best brands in the world. This was evident between the 1990s and 2000 where at the end of that decade, the company became the largest retailer employer globally with 1.4 million associates.

Products or Services

In terms of products and services, the company offers dozens of generic brands that sell everything from medicine, food, and household supplies. From a humble beginning as a small discount retailer in Rogers, the company has opened numerous stores in the U.S and expanded globally. The company's main focus on its services is to ensure that people save money and live better. The company has achieved this because it has been able to bring innovation to the market, something that has made life easier for the customers (Nassauer, par 4). Notably, the company is a distribution center of different products that include general merchandise and dry groceries and other specialty categories to its consumers. All its products and services are offered through eCommerce, where the clients can order what they need right at their fingerprint. Also, touted as the largest retailer on the planet, the company offers a variety of services to its consumers, including pharmacy, financial, photo lab services, and retail goods. For instance, the company offers a variety of retail goods in various categories as consumers who need digital cameras, computers, and other electronic-related products can order from the company the stores or order online. Walmart also partnered with other service provider, T-Mobile, to offer wireless service to its customers. It led the company to develop the Walmart Family Talk service, which is provided to customers with family plans for unlimited text and voices, thus attracting more consumers. The company indeed offers whopping services and products to its consumers across the globe. Although Walmart has been offering different products and services in the market, the best-selling product in the company is the banana. This is because annually, the company sells one billion bananas making a significant profit in terms of returns on investment. Since the company has over 75 million products offered in the market, it has remained famous and unique because it is inexpensive and easiest to shop at (Nassauer, par 8). Walmart's unique services and products have made the company remain strong in the market because it has kept true to its mission and strives to offer low everyday prices to its clients. It is true since the company was established five decades back has remained unique in terms of service offering. It has stayed focused true to its mission of offering high-quality products at low prices.  

Marketing

After the company's establishment in 1962, it has been registering positive growth in the market. Having started from the humble beginning, the company has remained successful in the market, something that has seen it open thousands of stores in America and across the globe. Through innovation, the company has been able to create a seamless experience that has let the consumers shop anytime and anywhere in the globe. The company's marketing strategy has created more opportunities and brought value to customers and communities around the globe. Also, in terms of marketing, the company has remained successful in the past three decades because the company created a seamless shopping experience (Boyle, par 2). For instance, since opening the first store in 1962, Walmart has been changing its tactics in the current advance and competitive market. It has been in the forefront to pursue ways to bring technology into the retail industry to offer clients a seamless shopping experience. The company's use of technology and numerous stores across the globe made the company register high profitability. The use of innovation made the customers embrace the company because it saved their time and money while reimaging how digital and physical shopping work today. With increased consumers in the market, Walmart's marketing effort has to focus on expanding its retail by publicizing its fast-growing areas like curbside grocery pickup. The effort of Walmart to expand its curbside grocery pickup market was contributed by the outbreak of covid-19 in the United States and globally. Also, Walmart has been reshaping its marketing team since the departure of Barbara Messing. The company's main focus of reshaping its marketing teams is to ensure that it remains profitable in the current competitive market. Walmart management's changes made in the marketing team seem not to affect the retailer's financial performance. Therefore, it is true the significant performance of Walmart in were contributed by the company's technological innovation. The use of eCommerce in service delivery has made the company outshine its competitors in the market in terms of sales and profitability. Essentially, Walmart uses demographic and psychographic segmentation strategies because it understands that customers every day want goods at lower prices possible (Team., par 7). The company has maintained its marketing strategy because it understands the consumers are used to the motto Everyday Low Prices, thus making the company remain profitable in the market. It is clear Walmart used its marketing strategy most of the time to attract large numbers of customers in the market, thus achieving high sales and consequently a profitable business in the eCommerce market. The success of Walmart in the market has been contributed by its teamwork and technological innovation, which has made the company deliver on its mission and meet the consumers' needs in the market.

Financial Profile

Walmart company has been strategically operating numerous retail stores in various formats worldwide. The company has been registering a positive financial profile in sales and returns on investment, thus making the corporation outshine its business competitors in the market. It is clear the company has been registering a high number of sales for the past five decades it has been in business (Ramadani, Veland, et al., 47). The current shift in consumer behavior might affect Walmart's financial profile. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, consumers have been shifting towards online grocery purchases. With such a shift, Walmart's financial performance can be threatened if the company fails to respond quickly or fails to meet shoppers' heightened convenience expectations. This was something that the company stated in its annual financial report of 2021. The report of shifting consumer's interest was released by the company ahead of its shareholders' meeting. Noting that it should invest in digital infrastructure and store model as that would help the company register positive sales in 2022 (Grace, par 8). The strategical change of the company tactics to meet the consumers' needs is important because it will help it remain competitive in the market. For instance, Walmart decided to respond to the shift in consumers behavior to continue delivering and building seamless omnichannel shopping experiences for its consumers. Therefore, the company has been recording a positive financial profile since its establishment five decades back. In 2021, Walmart's U.S net sales totaled $370 billion for fiscal 2021, an additional improvement of 8.6 percent from 2020 sales of $341 billion. The eCommerce net sales accounted approximately $43 billion of 2021 sales, an increase of 7.1 percent in fiscal 2020 net sales. Also, despite the effect of Covid-19, which incurred the company $4 billion, the operating expenses of Walmart were flat compared to fiscal 2020.

Work Cited

Akhtar, Allana. "Shaq Says He Made 'the Highest Purchase in Walmart History'." Bloomberg.com.29 March 2018.

Boyle, Matthew. "Walmart Poaches Its New Marketing Chief from Rival Target." Bloomberg.com. 22 April 2020.

Grace, Christine LaFave. “Top Takeaways from Walmart's 2021 Annual Report.” Winsight Grocery Business, Winsight Grocery Business, 23 Apr. 2021, www.winsightgrocerybusiness.com/retailers/top-takeaways-walmarts-2021-annual-report.

Nassauer, Sarah. "Walmart to Combine Online and Store Product-Buying Teams." Wall Street Journal - Online Edition. 2 February 2020.

Ramadani, Veland, et al. "Strategic management in the family businesses." Entrepreneurial Family Businesses. Springer, Cham, 2020. 43-53.

Team., Walmart Reshapes Marketing. "Walmart Reshapes Marketing Team." MMR. 16 september 2019.