沃尔玛市场调研报告

Wal-Mart

1. The background of Wal-Mart

American public corporation that runs a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of warehouse stores.Founded by Sam Walton in 1962, in Rogers, Arkansas Incorporated on October 31, 1969.Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.World's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the Forbes Global 2000. Publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. In 1991 Wal-Mart started the international market with the opening of a retail in Mexico City.

Wal-Mart has 8500 stores in 15 countries, with 55 different names.Operates under its own name in the United States in 50 states and Puerto Rico. Wal-Mart operates in Mexico as Walmex, United Kingdom as Asda, Japan as Seiyu and India as Best Price.It has wholly-owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America.

Wal-Mart history diagram:

1962: The birth of discount retailing

1963: Wal-Mart begins

1972: Wal-Mart goes public

1980: Wal-Mart comes of age

2010: most successful retailers in the world

Wal-Mart's operations are organized into three divisions: Wal-Mart Stores U.S,Sam's Club and Wal-Mart International.The company does business in nine different retail formats: supercenters,food and drugs,general merchandise stores, bodegas (small markets), cash and carry stores,membership , warehouse clubs,Apparel stores,soft discount stores and restaurants.

2.Wal-Mart customers

Wal-Mart Serves different individuals and provide an alternative shopping experience.It serves a market who wants a store where every product they need is available and sold at lower price.Covering all segments in the society; all age and gender.

3. Wal-Mart competitors

Main competitors are al l department and groceries stores. Target’s major

competitive advantage over Wal-Mart lies in its customer base: the average household income for Target customers is about $50,000 a year, whereas the average yearly income for a Wal-Mart customer is only $35,000. Target has had success with its quality-at-value-prices strategy among higher-income demographics, where price is not the only influence on sales. This higher-income customer base gives Target more stability than Wal-Mart, particularly as energy costs rise and the real estate market slows.Kmart, as the third discount retailer of the "Big Three", has seen steadily declining sales since 2000, losing considerable market share to both Wal-Mart and Target. As a large-scale retailer, Wal-Mart competes with a wide variety of other, specialized retailers, such as Safeway in groceries, Best Buy (BBY) in consumer electronics and Macy’s in apparel and home decor.

4. Industry Analysis

It requires a large amount of capital investment. Wal-Mart has an outstanding, distribution systems,locations,brand name

financial capital to fend off competitors.

Core Competencies of Wal-Mart are low price,broad scope,high quality,good customer service and convenience.

5.Strengths

Wal-Mart is a powerful retail brand (Strong Retail Brand)

Wal-Mart has grown substantially over recent years, and has

experienced global expansion.They have cutting-edge technology in international logistics system, inventory management, merchandising display and point of sale service.

And Wal-Mart has large numbers of store,financial strength ,good supplier relationship,recognition by business world and management skill ad employee competencies.

6. Weaknesses

Killer of small business’s image is Wal-Mart’weakness.

And conservative growth policy,Low rate of retailing exploitation,Low marketing skill cause bad influenceon Wal-Mart. Company is global but has a presence in relatively few countries worldwide.