Walmart is an American retail chain and is perhaps the largest retail chain in the world. Despite the high competition in the USA markets, the brand has proved itself to be one of the best retail chains.
Walmart has successfully penetrated the global market and made a name for itself in retail. The headquarter of Walmart is in Bentonville, USA.
Walmart History
Walmart is the world’s leader in the retail business. The brand was established by Sam Walton, and he was born in the year 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. In 1942, he joined the military when he was just 24 years old.
The initial days
In the year 1945, Sam Walton’s military service came to an end. Walton and his wife moved to Arkansas, USA. Sam Walton gained some work experience in the retail sector and soon opened his own assortment store. In the year 1950, Walton moved to Bentonville, and there he established Walton’s 5&10.
In 1962, the 44-year-old Walton opened his first Walmart store in Arkansas, USA.
The Rise of Walmart
By 1967, the Walton family possessed 24 stores, raising around USD $ 12.8 million in deals. In 1969, the brand name Wal-Mart, Inc. was given to the company. In 1970, The brand name changed to Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
In 1970, the brand became a public brand and was listed on the NYSE the next year. The first-ever share of the brand was sold at $16.50 per share.
In 1980, the Walton family settled the Walton Family Foundation as the organization reached USD $ 1 billion in yearly deals.
The first ever Sam’s Club was opened in Midwest City, Oklahoma, in 1983, and the brand replaced traditional sales registers with electronic retail systems, ensuring faster payments and checkouts.
The Present day
In 1987, the brand introduced the biggest private satellite communication framework in the USA, which connected the brand’s tasks through voice, information, and video communication channels.
The brand achieved its first USD $ 1 billion deals in 1993, the first USD $ 100 billion yearly deals in 1997, and in the first USD $ 400 billion yearly deals in the year 2009.
Today Walmart is owned by Walton Enterprises and their possessions.
As per the reports published in 2018, Walmart has 12,000 stores and clubs in 32 nations. Sam’s Club retail and warehouses are subparts of the brand as well.
Walmart Brand Value
In the year 2020, the brand value of Walmart was around USD $ 78 billion, whereas in 2019, the brand value stood at USD $ 68 billion. The brand is currently the leader in the retail chain in the world.
Walmart is the most important retail brand in North America, with a brand of around USD $131.8 billion, per reports published that year. The retail powerhouse has maintained the top position even with a 7 % decrease in brand value. The brand has given tough competition to its rival brand Target, whose brand value stood at USD $ 28 billion.
The reason for the brand value
Walmart has built up a product line comprising a variety of standards, rules, procedures, and systems throughout the years. These assisted in developing the brand image of the retail leader. A portion of Walmart’s most famous strategies incorporate the accompanying:
1 . Open door policy: Managers’ entryways are available to workers at all levels.
2 . The employees should be answering the questions coming from clients on the same day.
3 . Walmart is open to recommendations and ideas from all levels, and they actually implement them.
4 . The Three Fundamentals: Regard for the individual, support of our clients, and making progress toward greatness are foundations of the business.
5 . The 10-Foot Rule: Looking, welcoming individuals, and offering assistance to clients who will come in the 10-foot range of the employees.
6 . Leadership: Leaders will always support the team.
Walmart Brand Strategy
1 . The product strategy of Walmart
One of the principal factors in the product strategy of Walmart was to provide a variety of products to the clients.
Walmart Discount Stores offers item classifications like family clothing, car items, wellbeing, and excellence helps, home decorations, gadgets, equipment, toys, outdoor supplies, gardening and nursery things, pet supplies, gems, housewares, and so on.
Walmart Supercenters offers bread kitchen merchandise, solidified nourishments, meat, dairy items, and so on. Brand shops like hair salons, McDonald’s, Tram, and so on marked their place in these supercenters.
Walmart Neighborhood Markets highlighted items that are utilized by clients in their daily use, like nourishments, meat, and dairy things, drug stores, stationary materials, pet supplies, and so on.
Sam’s Club are a chain of membership clubs that offers items extending from electronics to groceries at a low cost.
2 . Pricing strategy of Walmart
The brand is a leader in its market, and it has strategically priced its products. Walmart procures items in bulk amounts all over the world and thus can, without much of a stretch, value its items lower than its rivals. Walmart enjoys the advantages of economies of scale for this reason.
Walmart charges the items around 20 % lower than its rivals do. They utilize distinctive valuing procedures relying upon the purchasing practices of the clients.
Terms such as ELDP have been used to imply that each item is evaluated. Thus, it can be safely said that the EDLP slogan is the foundation of Walmart’s business model.
3 . The distribution strategy of Walmart
The brand Walmart has around 12,000+ retail units over the world under 65 names in 32 nations. This incorporates around 4700+ Walmart USA stores, 650+ Sam’s club stores, and 6400+ Walmart international retail outlets.
The distribution strategy incorporates direct conveyance to stores by merchants who are the providers of the retail locations. The items are conveyed in bulk volumes to the stores. There are more than 160 distribution centers of Walmart that utilize the cross-docking technique.
The brand used the hub and spoke strategy wherein the merchandise is arranged in the middle and afterward sent to singular stores. The transportation is accomplished through an armada of 6,200 tractors, 62,000 trailers, and around 8,000 drivers.
They significantly focus on decreasing expenses of transportation and supply chain and make way for greener transportation.
Walmart has come up with a variety of stores, such as the Walmart discount stores and many others at several locations across the nation.
4 . Marketing strategy of Walmart
The brand does the marketing and the advertising through item packaging and competitive pricing techniques. The brand has been known for its aggressive marketing strategy, and it has made a name for itself in the retail market using that strategy.
Walmart has implemented an eCommerce strategy, and it draws in customers by gifting them. Walmart utilizes evaluating methodologies that add to the highest turnover of the brand. The eCommerce site utilizes attention-seeking mottos to draw in its clients so that they make a purchase without giving it a second thought.
Among all the strategies, the strategy which yielded the maximum benefit was the ‘Everyday Low Price’ promotional campaign. This has been the most successful one in Walmart’s history.
Conclusion
Walmart has set an example for retail chains and other companies in the retail industry. In recent times, Walmart has been in the news for acquiring an Indian eCommerce giant Flipkart and has cleverly made its way into the Indian market.
Despite the fact that there is tough competition in the retail sector in the USA, Walmart has proved its worth and managed to hold the topmost position with its strategies and brand image.
Marketing | Branding | Blogging. These Three Words Describe Me in The Best Way. I Am the founder of Burban Branding and Media, a Self-Taught Marketer with 10 Years of Experience. Helping Startups/ Companies/ and Small Businesses to Enhance Their Business Through Branding and Marketing. On A Mission to Help Small Businesses to Be a Brand.
