Walmart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton: an American businessman and entrepreneur (LSBFGlobalMBA, 2010, 0:05). The company since then has grown to be the largest multinational retail corporation that dominates the American market and the global market. Walmart became a supply chain leader in the retail industry primarily due to its saving money policy (LSBFGlobalMBA, 2010). The company relies on providing customers with the lowest prices possible: they push the suppliers to offer the lowest prices possible and then push it even further (LSBFGlobalMBA, 2010).
They aim to provide low cost in any manner possible, including saving on the product packaging and providing coupons to the customers. The coupons were initially designed to spread brand awareness among customers who try to save money when grocery shopping. The coupons’ popularity has gone down since its peak from the four billion usages in 1990 to the two billion usages in 2008, but it is still a strategy used by the company (LSBFGlobalMBA, 2010, 0:02:20). Walmart continues to thrive as a company, providing customers with an opportunity to save money while shopping.
Walmart is not the only company that provides customers with online and chain shopping, and the number of its competitors keeps growing. The company is primarily oriented towards the American market, and thus it does not have the same reach on the global sphere. Amazon, one of its main competitors, is quickly catching up. In fact, due to the growing interest in online shopping, it is used more than it has ever been before (Cavallo, 2018). With its large variety of products and a long-reaching presence in a large number of countries, Amazon might eventually overtake Walmart’s place as the number one supply chain provider.
References
Cavallo, A. (2018). More Amazon effects: Online competition and pricing behaviors. National Bureau of Economic Research. Web.
LSBFGlobalMBA. (2010). LSBF global MBA – case study: Walmart [Video]. Youtube. Web.