Research Paper on Walmart: The Global Powerhouse - World's Largest Private Employer

Introduction

Walmart Retail Company is one of the greatest private employers in the world. Walmart is a retail company that deals in selling retail consumer goods. Manufactured goods as well as the grocery items. Walmart Retail Company was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton, and it became an incorporation in 31st October 1969. The headquarters of the Walmart Company is situated in Bentonville Arkansas in the United States.

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Additionally, it has subsidiaries such as Flipkart, Walmart Canada, Sam's Club ad Jet.com among others. Furthermore, Walmart Company is a public listed company in the New York Securities exchange it currently Walmart stocks are trading at US$102.84. The main shareholder of the Walmart Company is the Walton Family which owns 51% of the shares as well as Mac Lore who owns 3.3 million shares. Walmart subsidiaries also own a significant number of shares in the company.

Target Corporation Retail Company is considered to be the eight-largest retail sale in the United States. The company is listed under the S&P 500 index, and its stock is traded at the NYSE market. The current stock price of target shares is US$77.42. George Dayton founded the company in 1902, and it started as a departmental store which was later incorporated as a discount chain in 1962. The headquarters of the Target Corporation is located in Minneapolis Minnesota in the United States. Target Corporation Retail Company is mainly owned by investors who include; other institutional who are the principal shareholders with 44.49% ownership of the company and Mutual Fund holders who have 41.96% of the shares. Individual stakeholders only own 0.85% of the company.

Major Elements

Walmart Retail Company has its headquarters at Bentonville Arkansas in the United States. Additionally, Walmart company has operated in 37 countries across the globe where it has 58 banners in 27 countries as d websites in 10 countries. Walmart has been the industry for over 50 years, and it has a total of 11,300 stores distributed in 37 countries. Also, Walmart is a Retail multinational corporation which has hypermarkets chains, grocery stores as well as discount department stores. The company is the largest private in the US where its employees 2,300,000 people. In every week Walmart has more than 235 million customers visiting its physical stores as well as the website. In the fiscal year 2019, Walmart had revenue of $514.4 billion. The global sales associates of Walmart are 2.3million. Some of the leading brands at Walmart are ModCloth, Shoe buy, Bonobos menswear, and grocery chains such as McDonald's. Most of the Walmart stores are painted in blue and yellow colors. The minimum age of the Walmart salespersons is 16 years while the Sam clubs employ salespersons that are aged 18 years and above. The average wage per hour at Walmart is $8.85.

Target Corporation Retail Company has 1,844 stores in the United States, and it also has stores in India. The company is the tenth largest employer in the US with a total of 360,000 employees. Furthermore, Target is a department chain store, and its primary customers have a median age of 40 years. Target chain stores sell a variety of brands such as Auden, Kona sol, Wild fable, Prologue, Heyday and Xhilaration among other top class brands. In the fiscal year 2019, the annual sales of the Target retail store were US$331.666billion. The revenue has been increasing, and thousands of customers visit the physical stores as well as the websites of the company. The Target stores are mostly painted in red and white and have beautiful lightings during the nights.

Retail Mix Strategy

The retail mix strategy for both Walmart and Target retail stores includes price, promotion, product, place, and presentation and store image (Baker & Hart, 2016).

Walmart

Pricing

The pricing strategy of Walmart is very different from its close competitors. For instance, Walmart allows discounts such that some commodities may cost 15% less in Walmart as compared to other stores(Gonzalez-Benito, Martos-Partal & Garrido-Morgado,2018). Consequently, Walmart attracts large numbers of customers in both its stores and websites because they are likely to save money upon shopping at Walmart.

Promotion

Walmart Retail Company mainly promotes its products through banners. For instance, it has 58 banners in 27 countries. Additionally, Walmart engages in online promotion practices primarily via its website and social media pages. It also engages in print and mainstream media advertising on journals such as the Wall Street Journal and CNBC.

Place

Walmart is keen at placing its products and brands strategically .for instance the Walmart stores have attractive designs and are painted in blue, yellow and white colors. Furthermore, the items are displayed attractively on the shelves of Walmart Company. The price tags of the products are indicated alongside the items. In most cases, the products with discounts are placed at shelves where customers can see them easily.

Product

The products of Walmart stores are highly differentiated and diversified. Walmart stores avail different brands that serve a similar purpose, and their prices vary. Therefore the customers are provided with options that satisfy their taste and their purchasing power.

Presentation and store image

Walmart stalls are located in malls as well as the hypermarkets and the departmental stores. The Walmart stores have attractive paintings, banners as well as the captivating arrangement of products on the shelves.

Target Retail Company

Price and promotion

Target Company offers unique price-differentiated products. Additionally, it offers Target Visa Card to its customers which enables them to shop on credit. It also includes promotions such as buy two get one free. Furthermore, Target has a promotion phrase that states "Expect more, pay Less" which has attracted many customers because they think the products at Target are highly affordable(Oztaysi, Gurbuz, Albayrak & Kahraman,2016).

Product and place

Target Retail Company has made efforts to ensure that its stores are one-stop-shop for its customers. The management has achieved this by selling a variety of brands to customers. It also provides general merchandise through its official website. The products of Target are diversified, and they range from fashion and accessories, groceries, household essentials, and pets supply among others.

Presentation and store image

Target Retail company displays its products on shelves that are well arranged. Furthermore, it has stores for different brands. The stores are mainly painted in bench and red colors that are attractive to the customers.

Meeting the Needs of the Customers

Both Walmart and Target retail stores strategies for meeting their customers slightly differ. For instance, Walmart provides a variety of brands that act as substitutes. The different are priced differently and have varying quality. Furthermore, it offers discounts to its customers. Walmart also seeks customers feedback via email and encourages the customers to rate them on the website.

On the other hand, Target provides a variety of brands which are positioned in a different store. It offers the Target Visa card which enables the customers to purchase even when they do not have the funds. Target seeks customer feedbacks through calls and rating which and consequently respond to them.

Work Cited

Baker, M. J., & Hart, S. (Eds.). (2016). the marketing book. Routledge.

Gonzalez-Benito, O., Martos-Partal, M., & Garrido-Morgado, A. (2018). Retail store format decisions. In Handbook of Research on Retailing. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Oztaysi, B., Gurbuz, T., Albayrak, E., & Kahraman, C. (2016). Target Marketing Strategy Determination for Shopping Malls Using Fuzzy ANP. Journal of Multiple-Valued Logic & Soft Computing, 27.