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Case Study Walmart

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An Analysis of Walmart’s Global Expansion: Key Facts, Issues and Strategies Fall 2011 Executive Summary Since 1991, Walmart International has experienced mixed results with its big-box, low cost strategy around the world, yet managed to progress to running 4,112 units in 15 countries – just shy of matching the number of units in the United States. The famous “Everyday low prices”, one-stop-shop Walmart boasts such a product assortment that it achieves economies of scale and scope in operations and marketing (Etgar & Rachman-Moore, 2010). Reception of this strategy was so poor in Germany and Korea that Walmart withdrew from those countries in 2006 (Boyle, 2009). Other countries, such as Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom, …show more content…

In India, threats to success include widespread poverty, poor infrastructure, insufficient access to education, and the migration from rural to urban living. In China, associated risks of expansion include the rate of inflation exceeding government projections and inadequate job growth for the new workers in the job market (youth and immigrants). In China, Walmart’s plummeting market share (from 8% to 5.5%) highlights a need to reassess their strategy and respond to the Chinese customer trend of seeking focused differentiation – higher end products and the willingness to pay for them. Another move that contributed to the market share decrease was the Chinese government’s insistence on making an example of Walmart and their food supply chain in what has been dubbed the “Green Pork” scandal (Webb, 2011). Through technological networking, Walmart was also able to create WIN, “Walmart’s Innovation Network”, where entrepreneurs apply for entry into the company’s huge distribution system. By doing so, Walmart not only helps businessmen distribute their products efficiently, it also increases diversified product lines of high quality for its customers (Shah & Phipps, 2002). The WIN strategy, combined with the creation of the “Global Ethics Office” in 2004 are two large steps corporate Walmart is taking to avoid and ameliorate

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