Introduction
Today, Walmart is a well-known American retail corporation promoting services in its hypermarkets and other stores locally and worldwide. This organization successfully proved its stability in three major areas: opportunity (employment and investment), sustainability (emission reduction), and community (specific social needs) (Harrison, 2019). Value chain analysis is a unique opportunity to investigate the company’s activities and introduce improvements regarding available resources and achievements. This process consists of three major steps: identifying primary and supportive value chain activities, defining cost, and introducing competitive advantage opportunities.
Walmart Support Activities
As shown in Figure 1, Walmart has a strong organizational infrastructure and additional supporting activities, including human resources, technological development, and procurement. Despite the existing criticism in its human resource sector, the improvements cannot be ignored. Walmart has cooperated with more than 210 distribution centers where more than 2.3 million people work (Harrison, 2019). The company has offered new policies to remove minimal wages for regular employees and promote high pay with more than $250 billion investment in US-made products (Harrison, 2019). Special attention was paid to its technological advancement due to a powerful digital platform, the development of new information technology strategies, and the analysis of appliable mobile devices. The company wants to be sure that its customers are able to use services from any part of the work with their favored devices. Finally, the success of procurement is explained by the possibility of working with multiple suppliers, organizing ordinary and bulk purchases, and following a low-price policy.
Walmart Primary Activities
At the same time, Figure 1 describes several primary activities related to inbound and outbound logistics, the choice of operations and services, and the implementation of marketing/sale policies. Inbound logistics introduce the processes in which Walmart is involved to store and receive its raw materials. The company’s success is cooperation with various global brands and the maintenance of technically advanced supply chains. In addition to using and offering goods, Walmart develops handling activities and cooperates with suppliers to obtain enough recommendations. Besides, Walmart converts raw materials into finished goods, allowing product diversity for affordable prices. Warehouse clubs are located across 28 countries in more than 11,000 stores to offer real-time sales and fast payment methods (Harrison, 2019). Cross-docking, low transportation costs, and full delivery services attract customers and supplies. Walmart does not want to stop its low pricing policies and continues offering promotional sales, communicating with customers and suppliers directly, and analyzing current community needs. People may use its delivery and repair services, enjoy its customer-service focus and greetings, and communicate anytime if they want to leave feedback or ask a question.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Walmart has already achieved positive results in its strategic planning and product/service diversity. The offered value chain analysis proves that focus on low and competitive prices is still the major requirement. There are many competitors and alternative services for customers to address, and Walmart should not drop its idea, which has already attracted much attention. The number of stores and warehouses allows contributing to inventory. Finally, examining customers’ needs is a serious step, and the improvement of the value chain directly depends on how well Walmart might cooperate with customers, gather their opinions, and offer the best services.
Reference
Harrison, V. (2019). Legitimizing private legal systems through CSR communication: A Walmart case study. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 24(3), 439–455.