Company

Walmart aims at enhancing operational expertise. which it did so as mentioned in the case

study; achieved 4.2 per cent comparable sales growth in the United States in the fourth

quarter of fiscal year 2019, resulting in a rise in Walmart’s shares by 3.9%. this can also be

seen in exhibit 2; revenue rising from 2015 ($485651 million) till 2019 ($514405 million).

Walmart has a wide spread store network in the U.S, within 10 miles of 90 per cent of the

U.S. population. Since it wanted to grow even further in accordance with globalization,

Walmart repositioned itself to grow its online presence. Walmart used the everyday low

pricing (EDLP), pricing everything at the lowest possible price to attract many customers.

Walmart also relies on data to make operational decisions by using bar codes, share sales data

with suppliers, control its own logistics and transport service and install point of sale

information system that collected item level data in real time. In order to increase efficiency

online, Walmart’s three online programs included: Walmart.com; that was launched in 2000,

this site sold items that were also available in-store; Marketplace; and online store where

third party sellers could participate on Walmart, Jet.com, a high-end retailer of consumer

goods. This resulted in an increase in online revenue for Walmart; growth of 40% to $15.7

billion in FY ended January 31, 2019. With Walmart’s high expectations for data analysis,

category management responsibilities, and external research, therefore its key suppliers had

employees working full-time to provide support. category captains were introduced in the late

1980s to analyze and provide solutions and recommendations to improve overall category

performance. In February 2019 Walmart allowed its suppliers, such as P&G, Unilever, and

Modelez, to advertise directly to consumers in its stores and online at Walmart.com. Due to

this, Walmart had approximately 300 million visitors in its U.S. stores per month. Sam

Walton emphasized on gaining economies of scale, and wanted to increase distribution

centers. Walmart had 173 DCs in the United States. Its DCs were focused on a variety of
roles in the supply chain, including regional general merchandise, full-line grocery, grocery

and perishable food, fashion, e-commerce fulfilment centres and specialty products.

Customers

According to the caste study; a Morgan Stanley data analysis found that Walmart dominated

the market for lower-income consumers. Walmart expanded by adding 1,000 grocery pickup

locations, growing the number of grocery delivery locations by 800. To do so, Walmart

picked Udelv for custom autonomous cargo vans to deliver groceries in Arizona and

collaborated with Ford on the development of self-driving cars for grocery deliveries.

Walmart caters to its customers in many categories, majority of it includes: general

merchandise, food and beverages, food services and drinking places, gasoline, building

materials and gardening supplies, furniture and electronics, healthcare, clothing, sporting

goods, books, music, as shown in exhibit 1. Walmart operates over 11500 stores in 28

countries and numerous e-commerce websites. Walmart also has a platform; Jet.com, where

customers who are willing to spend more amount on high end consumer goods can do so.