Online Grocery Industry Is as a Competitive

¶ … online grocery industry is as a competitive a market as the brick and mortar grocery industry, maybe even more so. Many of the same competitors that operate traditional grocery establishments are also competitors in the online environment. Many of the competitors are quite adept at marketing and a competitive analysis will likely show that their brick and mortar expertise has translated well in the online environment. Three of the most prolific competitors include WalMart, Target and NetGrocer. WalMart, of course is an international firm with profits of approximately $127 billion in 2013.

Target is rather paltry in comparison with a total revenue (as compared to WalMart's total profit) of approximately $73 billion. Even though NetGrocer has less than $1 billion in revenue it is still the fourth largest online grocer in the industry. It would seem, therefore, that the two competitors most worrisome to Amazon (who is rated as the number one online company in the world) would be WalMart and Target, with the main concern being WalMart. WalMart seems to approach the marketplace in much the same manner as Amazon.

Instead of offering segmented pricing, WalMart implements the "every customer pays the same low price strategy." Even though many consumers may believe that WalMart uses a predatory pricing strategy coupled with a monopoly strategy (once the predatory strategy has drawn in the consumer) the perception may be misguided in this case. WalMart prices their products as low as possible using the "as needed" strategy. WalMart has perfected providing product in their retail stores as close to the consumer needs as can be timed.

Other firms are not quite as adept as one recent study determined. The study found that "suppliers would have different niches of business in terms of delivery time and price" (Huang, Chen, Ho, 2013, p. 72). WalMart would have a considerable advantage over similar firms because Walmart has developed the expertise throughout the years of delivering product just on time. A competitive matrix comparing WalMart, Target and Amazon has been developed below. WalMart Amazon Target Competitive Factor Weight Rating Extended Rating Extended Rating Extended Online ordering 0.16 3 0.18 4 0.24 2 0.12 Product Quality 0.14 4 0.16 3 0.12 3 0.12.