Extended Marketing mix of Walmart- The 7 P's
PROCESS
Introduction:
Walmart has come a long way from a small discount
retail store to a global leader of retail stores. Walmart now operates more
than 11,500 stores and employs around 2.2 million associates around the globe.
Through innovation and regular technology advancements, Walmart gives its
customers a seamless shopping experience anywhere, anytime in stores, through
mobile apps or online through an e-commerce website. (Tradegeko, 2018)
Overview:
Walmart makes you witness one of history’s
greatest operational and logistic triumphs. With this kind of overwhelming
numbers, the organization needs to have an efficient supply chain management
process. The retailer has an amazing business model to drive costs out of
supply chains so that they can enable their consumers to save money and live
better. Over the past 15-20 years, Walmart has become the world’s leading
retailer with the highest inventory revenue, operating profit, and sales per square
foot. Walmart follows the following steps to make their processes and functioning
smooth: (Clara Lu, Supply Chain case studies 2018)
· The retailer has a goal to provide the customers with whatever products they need
wherever and whenever.
· To
keep up the first goal organization need to have a very efficient cost
structure which will also allow them to offer the lowest prices to the customers.
· To
achieve market leadership and attain competitive advantage Walmart focussed on
developing a very efficient supply chain management process.
Effectiveness of Walmart’s Supply
Chain Management process:
The very first step of building an effective supply chain management process was
Vendor Management Inventory (VMI). Through this initiative, the suppliers and
manufacturers became directly responsible for their products in Walmart’s
warehouses. As a result of this process, the retailer was close to 100% order
fulfilment on merchandise. Then Walmart focussed on building strategic vendor
partnerships by clear communication and relationship network with manufacturers
by offering them long-term high volume procurements in exchange of lowest possible prices.
Another
interesting logistics practice used by Walmart is Cross-docking. Cross-docking
replenishes the store’s inventory quite efficiently. It means there is a direct
transfer of goods from coming in trucks to outbound trucks or railroad car
without the need for any storage in between. This process of cross-docking cuts
down the transportation time, cost and any other inefficiency in the inventory
management process. The store’s world-class transportation fleet of trucks and
trained drivers smoothen the delivery process to the distribution centres.
Walmart’s innovative approach of synchronizing and do collaborative planning for the demand
projections among the store, suppliers and manufacturers make their supply
chain process more efficient. This approach helps to have more cooperation
among distribution centres, manufacturers, suppliers, stores and every link in
this supply chain is connected via technology which includes sales system,
satellite network and a central database.
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Walmart is among the forerunners in
employing technology to manage their supply chain process. Walmart is one of
the retailing companies to centralize its distribution system. The retailer has
established a terminal network have communication link between the stores and
the headquarters. They have developed a world class fleet of transport for
direct delivery from manufacturers. Muhammad Sabir (2017)
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How Walmart improved its strategy
overtime to face competition:
World’s
largest retailer-Walmart is reinventing itself and turning toward growth
markets and creating a retail store that will flourish in the future. To stack
the deck against competition Walmart has incorporated following tactics.
(TMFHobo 2018)
Smart
Portfolio strategy- In the year 2018, the retailer announced the merger of its
British subsidiary Asda with Sainsbury grocer that allows Walmart to cash out
most of its stake in the market of the United Kingdom, this step helped the
retailer stand strong in the cut-throat competition, also received $4 billion
from the deal. This deal was followed by $16 billion deal with Flipkart giving
the store a stake of 77% in the Indian operating e-commerce, which can soon make
Walmart a major play in the second-biggest economy.
Walmart
is making huge strides in the e-commerce market, as it has become essential for
any brick and mortar business. Walmart has taken a modest amount of share in
the online business from the leading e-commerce retailer Amazon. Walmart has
rolled out different types of programs such as having more than 2000 grocery
pickups, free shipping, and tactics such as pick up towers. Recently Walmart
launched a personalised shopping service called Jetblack (Corporate.walmart,
2018). This allows its customers to text their shopping list and Jetblack will
find the right products and deliver them the very same day or next day.
Lastly,
value propositions, (Medium.com, 2018) Walmart is well known for its low
prices- 20% less than their competitive retailers as their motto says “Save
money, Live better”. Walmart has always been a customer
centric
and having a strong relationship with its loyal customers. Walmart has a loyalty
driven business.
World’s
largest retailer-Walmart is reinventing itself and turning toward growth
markets and creating a retail store that will flourish in the future. To stack
the deck against competition Walmart has incorporated following tactics.
(TMFHobo 2018)
Smart
Portfolio strategy- In the year 2018, the retailer announced the merger of its
British subsidiary Asda with Sainsbury grocer that allows Walmart to cash out
most of its stake in the market of the United Kingdom, this step helped the
retailer stand strong in the cut-throat competition, also received $4 billion
from the deal. This deal was followed by $16 billion deal with Flipkart giving
the store a stake of 77% in the Indian operating e-commerce, which can soon make
Walmart a major play in the second-biggest economy.
Walmart
is making huge strides in the e-commerce market, as it has become essential for
any brick and mortar business. Walmart has taken a modest amount of share in
the online business from the leading e-commerce retailer Amazon. Walmart has
rolled out different types of programs such as having more than 2000 grocery
pickups, free shipping, and tactics such as pick up towers. Recently Walmart
launched a personalised shopping service called Jetblack (Corporate.walmart,
2018). This allows its customers to text their shopping list and Jetblack will
find the right products and deliver them the very same day or next day.
Lastly,
value propositions, (Medium.com, 2018) Walmart is well known for its low
prices- 20% less than their competitive retailers as their motto says “Save
money, Live better”. Walmart has always been a customer
centric
and having a strong relationship with its loyal customers. Walmart has a loyalty
driven business.
PRODUCT
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Buying any product at
Walmart got easier with its new in-store shopping app called ‘Store Assistant’.
The store assistant helps you save time on everything from prescription pickups
to merchandise returns. Walmart is keeping up with technology to make their
products readily available to their customers. Daniel Eckert (2018)PRICE
PLACE
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