沃尔玛企业战略规划研究

er of suppliers
For suppliers need retail companies more than retail companies need them, so retail companies may require suppliers about certain products and technologies (RFID in packaging, for example) and don't allow suppliers to increase their prices. What’s more, suppliers are demanded for ontime- delivery and may be punished for late delivering.
provides a wider market for Wal-Mart to explore profit and realize its potential since international operations accounted only 17 percent of its total revenues. In rural areas where Wal-Mart’s rural network is still intact, competition is minimal and the local labor and real estate costs are much lower compared to those in larger cities.
In rural areas, a steady job at a decent wage was all that was wanted by the residents, so labor costs are low. As the labor force has increased, it has become more diverse as more women and minorities have enter the labor force. The percentage and status of women both increased.
The world economy is in general weakness and the environment prevailed is uncertain. Discount retailing had evolved into a global industry. And the globalization trend is now increasingly strong
Key Threats
Being big is not so easy
Experienced competitors such as Dollar General and Carrefour are niche-based challengers who deserve careful watch out. Pending lawsuits filed by its employees about “overtime work without any pay” and gender discrimination may cause huge influence about its image, and it’s also examined by immigration and naturalization service for whether hiring illegal immigrants. On its Wal-Martization way, different socioculture and competing environment such as those in Brazil, Argentina, Germen and source Korea, may become stumbling blocks. Given the large size and reach that the company had built, many feared that it has been too powerful. “selfappointed censor”
Next stop is now South America, because they are half a season behind. We are able to forecast U.S. buying patterns by what happens in South America. That is globalization.” What’s more, globalization
In a word, bargaining power of suppliers is weak.
Bargaining power of buyers
The buyers are tough negotiators and demanded a wide array of price and service concessions. Retail companies have always been trying to keep low price by keeping down suppliers’ prices because they always wanted consumers to get the same quality over time in the lowest price possible. However, some companies may have too big a market share resulting that consumers do not have many alternatives. For example, Wal-Mart in U.S. individually responsible for selling 35% of all pet food, 24% of all toothpaste, and the largest volume of jewelry, groceries, DVDs and so on.
Porter’s Five Forces Model analysis of the global retailing industry
Threat of new entrants
Barriers to entry:

economies of scale: the discount retailing had evolved into a global industry, and big companies such as Wal-Mart and its counterparties had cornered a significant chunk of the global retail business, so they can cut a lot of excess costs and pass on some to the end customers.
Key Opportunities
Dominating global retailing
Globalization trend is the main opportunities for Wal-Mart. As Mr. Menzer observed, “fashion starts in Europe.
Wal-Mart General Environment Analysis
--A retailing dominator in the world
The Wal-Mart Empire
Geographic Distribution: small towns during its infancy and close to major cities by 2003. Population Size: 5,000 to 25,000 in small towns and great number of people in its global locations.
The union has a more strong power and always want to bring more labors under there fold.
People’s consciousness of their rights as consumers has been more strong.
Sociocultural and institutional attributes are quite different in global markets. Risks also exists in global markets for countries such as Brazil and Argentina are quite unstable given the fluctuating fortunes of their respective economies.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service of the U.S. government examines whether companies hires illegal immigrants in contravention of the law.
There are laws such as labor law that protects labors’ rights and others that forbidden gender discrimination. And WalMart faces many suit from its employees.
Technological change is in a rapid pace and competitive advantage is more and more derived from newly emerging technologies. Internet and wireless forms of communications such as private satellite network are important technologies nowadays. Good logistics system and deliver system are important factors which influence efficiency, i.e. volume and inventoryturn velocity, of retail companies.