Walmart's Value Chain Model

Superior Essays
A customer nowadays has a lot of options in front of him where products and brands are concerned. What helps the customer decide on a final product, is the value which he derives from that particular product. A customer might be looking for a television or he might be looking to travel abroad. In both the cases, there are processes involved which ensure that the customer gets the best product or service from the company. The customer expects to get a television at the optimum price with the best after sales service OR the customer gets the tickets timely, has a safe travel and enjoys his trip abroad. In both the cases, if the chain of events is right, the customer has gotten the best value after purchasing the product. This is where …show more content…
In this paper, different processes carried out at Walmart are described in lieu of this model. Walmart is an American corporation retail organization of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated on October 31, 1969. As of September 30, 2016, Walmart has 11,573 stores and clubs in 28 countries, under a total of 63 banners. Walmart is the world 's largest company by revenue, according to the Fortune Global 500 list in 2016, as well as the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees
Primary Activities:
Inbound Logistics: Each company needs to have raw materials and the importing of raw material is known as Inbound logistics. In the process of inbound logistics, your relations with your suppliers play a crucial role towards adding value to your end product. If your relations are good with your suppliers, you are likely to get the raw material in a timely manner and at optimal cost. Also, the rate at which you are able to get the raw material from your supplier to your company also adds value to the process. Thus, your material is available for further
…show more content…
Generally, Walmart inbound logistic practices are based on the following three principles:
1. Using the minimum amount of links in the supply chain. Starting from the 1980s, Walmart began to ruthlessly eliminate traders in its supply chain opting to work with manufacturers directly. Such a strategic decision proved to have a positive impact on the bottom line after a few years. Specifically, “in 1989, Wal-Mart was named Retailer of the Decade, with distribution costs estimated at a mere 1.7% of its cost of sales – far superior to competitors like Kmart (3.5%) and Sears (5%)”. The efficiency of Walmart supply chain practices has further improved since in a consistent manner.
2. Forming strategic partnerships with vendors. Walmart imposes strict conditions on various aspects of the business when negotiating with potential suppliers. The company also attempts to purchase for the lowest prices applying its huge bargaining power in order to be able to maintain the cost leadership competitive advantage. However, once a potential vendor is contracted as a supplier, Walmart offers a strategic partnership for the long-term perspective and engages in high volume purchases, although for lower

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    When it comes to the decision of the consumer as to what to purchase multiple factors come into play such as, the prices of the goods, the consumer’s budget, and how much satisfaction (utils) the consumer will receive from purchasing an item. Also, when deciding as to what business to purchase from it depends on the consumer’s preference, for instance, some consumers may prefer Braum’s ice cream to Blue Bell Creameries since Braum’s does not use artificial flavors. Another reason that a consumer may receive more satisfaction from eating Braum’s ice cream is because they are aware that the ingredients for their ice cream came from Braum’s dairy farm, which may be a factor for a consumer that gives them more satisfaction. However, there are constraints that can come into play that can affect a consumer’s decision such as a consumer’s budget. For example, if a consumer prefers Braum’s ice cream over Blue Bell Creameries, yet the closest place they can get ice cream is Blue Bell Creameries they may settle to go to Blue Bell Creameries since they cannot afford the fuel to travel to Braum’s.…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walmart Vs Rubbermaid

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Well for starters It is very clear that this partnership is far more in favor to Walmart then anyone else. We can see this when we look at what happened to Rubbermaid from 1994 to 2004. Walmart and Rubbermaid created a partnership and for a while Rubbermaid was doing very well because of it, until Resin prices rose. Rubbermaid had called for a price increase on their products, because producing would now be slightly more expensive. Unfortunately for them Walmart has a very strict low price policy and would not budge to create a price increase and instead dropped their product.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People can quantify their purchase by looking at it and feeling as though they are getting more of that item for a small amount of money. And with that saved money, customers are able to purchase multiple items while not having to spend excessively for the products they desire. This is a huge advertising lure for Wal-Mart as their slogan is “Save money, live…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Furthermore, unlike its competitors, Wal*Mart had few promotions. In part, this led the Company to have prices lower than those of its competitors. Fourth, Wal*Mart developed its “Buy American” program in an effort to replace foreign made products sold in its stores with American made products. As this corresponded with values of the Company’s customers, it encourage them to buy at Wal*Mart. Fifth, the Company took approximately 120 days to open an average store that could possibly be expanded at a later date.…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Walmart’s motto is “Save money. Live better.” and that is true because their customers are able to live better since they save money by buying low cost products at walmart. These low priced products are meant to help consumers by meeting their demands. In addition, Walmart employs a large amount of Americans and gives them the opportunity to climb to a higher position as well as they do not discriminate.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Second, Walmart has the ability to gather information about their products and customers through their superior collecting technology. The company is able to improve the utilization and coordination of their supply chain with the right information…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    SUSTAINABLE SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES From working personally with the Woolworths company I was able to see how and why inventory was transferred from suppliers to stores. The Woolworths company uses a very simple inventory management system. As a supermarket, having the adequate number of stock in stores at all times is pivotal in keeping customers satisfied after every shop at a Woolworths store. In order to achieve this goal, Woolworths supermarkets use an electronic inventory management system that sends alerts to the specific warehouse when stock is low or is expected to run out.…

    • 1424 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This keeps the costs low and distribution much more easily possible. This was a great strategy to have because, as Wal-Mart became more and more prevalent in the industry throughout the 1980s, “By the time the rest of the retail industry started to take notice of Wal-Mart… it had built up the most efficient logistics network of any retailer” (Mark,…

    • 1848 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Wal-Mart makes sure that they have a distribution center in a close location to their stores. This is the way that the can ensure that they can have deliveries made to their stores within a day. They also have used technology to its fullest. They are able to communicate among stores, distribution centers, and suppliers. “The system consolidated orders for goods, enabling the company to buy full truckload quantities without incurring the inventory costs” (Wal-Mart Stores, 2).…

    • 1599 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wile some laws proved to be beneficial for Wal-Mart others didn’t. For instance, the minimum wage and high production cost because of that lead Wal-Mart to outsource production of goods to foreign suppliers, that provide low cost. International: As Wal-Mart started facing issues locally, such as, low growth rates, the best option the management could come up with was to expand internationally. Following the business model of many other international discount chains, Wal-Mart also started expanding internationally.…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Wal-Mart is targeting their future growth to the developing countries; particularly these countries are Brazil, Russia, India and China. They are important because they are growing rapidly, thus Wal-Mart can become key players in these markets and gain a circumference on the competing companies and expanding their international market. Russia and India are enormously vital for the reason that they are the world's fastest growing trade markets. Though, they cause troubles for foreign retailers since they have numerous regulations against the foreign retailers such as bans against foreign stores or limits against development by retailers.…

    • 810 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    It didn’t have online shopping but because of amazon they are forced to do it. • Walmart keeps their customer satisfied by using Low-cost leadership strategy by offering them item at lower cost than other retailers. • Its online shipping charge is $5 to7$ per package • Walmart provide customer satisfaction at their retail store by providing immediate delivery of the item. Amazon business model and business strategies • Amazon has been very successful with their online shopping, but they don’t have physical store.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    2. Discuss the Wal-Mart online strategy, from the perspective of the Resource…

    • 1745 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    Airasia Case Study

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages

    I. INTRODUCTION a. Objectives and Scope AirAsia is a malaysian low-cost airline. It scheduled domestic and international flights and is Asia’s largest low fare airline. Nowadays, MIS is a significant factor that influence the airlines system. In this article, the writer will focused on the online booking department that generized with the MIS system.…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Netflix Marketing Mix

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Creating the best possible product for consumers is…

    • 829 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays