Walmart: Global Leader in Low Prices, Looking to Grow Reputation - Essay Sample

Introduction

Walmart is the world's leading company and the most significant organization based in the United States through its lowest prices (Fishman, p. 69). The company started as a grocery store in the United States and has grown to over 11,300 stores in over 27 countries (www.walmart.com). As stated in the company's website, even though Walmart still works based on the founding principles of providing low-cost products to its customers, the brand is looking forward to building its reputation as a renowned international business. Walmart has adopted the use of online platforms to enable its consumers to shop online anytime from anywhere all over the world. The business rivals in the market share are companies like Amazon and Costo, while competitors in the retail market are Target and K-Mart in the United States. Today Walmart provides a large assortment of products and services from groceries, entertainment clothes, electronics, household goods, jewelry, family apparel, toys, shoes, and fabrics. However, the companies have ventured into a new retailing sector, and recently they opened an automotive repair shop and a major pharmacy. Currently, the company has over 2.2million workers in their different stores, with over 1million staff working in the United States.

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The core principle of Walmart's business approach is to sell brand name goods and quality merchandise at the lowest price possible. The method is established to enable the company to attract and keep the customers engaged with a price cut and accessible shopping. Due to the low pricing tact, discounts, sales attached, and American's obsession to purchase products, if there are discounts, the firm has been able to retain its customers (Ciravegna, and Esteban, p. 19). The enterprise has been associating with its customers through involving itself with local community services, providing customer satisfaction, and giving scholarships to increase the company's market share and growth (Akter, p.7). The company has remained on top of its close competitors through negotiating deals for their products directly from the producers, thus eliminating the middleman and reducing the costs of their goods by the use of innovative electronic knowledge and warehousing.

Walmart is an ever growing company as a result of its ability to use the bargaining power to attain the lowest prices the suppliers is a significant factor that has played a role in its product low-pricing. The company's growth have also been influenced by its striving excel and success, relationship and commitment with customers, and respect for individuals (Ciravegna, & Brenes, 2016). The company treat its workers with respect and pushes them to excel in whatever field if need be. The pricing philosophy is also another factor driving growth by selling their products at the lowest price possible. Venturing into new businesses is another growth factor for Walmart, the company is entering into new business sectors of retailing, for example, the recently opened automotive repair shop. Large sales volume as a result of the company's pricing strategy, large customer base and scale of operation is also a contributing factor for the enormous growth of Walmart.

Conclusion

Walmart's expansion is not only happening in the United States but also international, the company is opening new branches all over the world. The low pricing approach which is the core principle of the business, management strategies and its corporate culture has helped the company to remain on the top notch of its competitors. Size, Scale, accessible shopping and technology have assisted Walmart to attain its brand loyalty and popularity internationally. However, the company had to also reduce on working and expense costs. On the other hand, Walmart experience the pressure from its competitors but have eventually applied different approaches to remain the best retail shop.

Works Cited

Akter, Shahriar, et al. "How to improve firm performance using big data analytics capability and business strategy alignment?." International Journal of Production Economics 182 (2016): 113-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.08.018

Ciravegna, Luciano, and Esteban R. Brenes. "Learning to become a high reliability organization in the food retail business." Journal of Business Research 69.10 (2016): 4499-4506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.015

Fishman, Charles. The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World's Most Powerful Company Really Works and How It's Transforming the American Economy. New York: Penguin Press, 2006. Print.

Werther, William B. Strategic Corporate Social Responsibilty. Sage, n.d.. Print.