The stores products are not targeted to me, which highlights a difference in expectations between the in-store and online experiences. I expect that an in-store experience will not be personalized, so I do not notice when something the company is attempting fails. But online I do expect a more personalized experience, so when deals are offered that are of no relevance to my search and of no interest to me this comes across as being inefficient. To me this illustrates that the online experience should be, if anything, more economically efficient, but I have found it to be less so.
The firm's position in the market appears to be therefore hindered by the information available over the Internet. The firm is simply less effective at meeting the customer's needs. Whereas Wal-Mart excels in-store at creating visual experiences that draw customers around the store, this is not the case online. Therefore, the customer's participation level in the market is also reduced. It seems more likely to me that a customer in a Wal-Mart store is more likely to engage in impulse shopping than one searching the online store for goods.
Information online can and should be more efficient than information in-store, if only because of the ability of websites to personalize the information. The information that is gathered should be applied to the shopping experience...
Perhaps, though, Wal-Mart has determined that the cost of acquiring the information that would make the online shopping experience more efficient is not worthwhile. If this is the case, then the company's decision makes sense. However, the company has invested considerable money in information systems that allow it to customize the in-store experience, specifically because it has deemed this information to have more value than the cost of acquiring it. For example, if rain is forecast, rain gear is easier to find. Merchandising decisions can be made on a daily basis, based on the information that Wal-Mart has gathered about purchasing habits. It stands the reason that the company can apply this to its online experience, but from what I could see this is not the case.
Overall, while Wal-Mart's in-store experience is highly efficient from an economic perspective and is geared entirely towards improving sales volumes, I found that the website lacked the same degree of economic efficiency. The manager was unable to shed any light on this, but perhaps the acquisition cost of information for the website is higher than it is for the physical store, and this is why the website has what appears to be a lower rate of economic efficiency.
