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A search for "buy vacuum" yielded Yahoo! Shopping, Best Buy and a store in Australia, but Wal-Mart did not make the front page. A search for "vacuum cleaner" again failed to turn up Wal-Mart. Adding a geographic search also failed to turn up Wal-Mart, instead yielding specialty stores focused on this product. Thus, competitors do turn up on the front page, but Wal-Mart does not. However it is worth knowing that aside from Best Buy, the competitors tend to be specialty stores. Other general goods retailers that form the main competition for Wal-Mart, such as Target, Sears or Amazon, also do not turn up on the first page of Google hits. I believe that for specific products, Wal-Mart does not have good search optimization. It is conceivable that Wal-Mart relies on its substantial brand recognition to bring customers directly to its website, rather than via a search engine. Alternately, the breadth of Wal-Mart's product line makes it unlikely that it will receive pagination by search engines for any given item that will bring up Wal-Mart on the first page of a search.
When "Wal-Mart" is googled, most of the hits are from Wal-Mart. The company's main retail site is the first three hits. This is followed by news stories about Wal-Mart, some of which are based on Wal-Mart press releases. Wikipedia is represented, as is WalMartStores.com, the company's corporate...
At the bottom of the first page of Google hits are sites that are not created by the company. These include critical sites such as WalMartWatch.org and the satirical PeopleofWalMart.com. Lastly, the New York Times is included on the first page of Google results. Bing results are less critical, but do feature a union website that discusses Wal-Mart related labor issues.
The sites that are critical of Wal-Mart are buried underneath of the corporate news and the company's retail site. They are most likely to be found by those looking for them. That said, the presence of negative and satirical websites on the front page of the Google hits is likely to be a negative for Wal-Mart, as these sites contribute to a negative image of the company. The company's ethical practices come into question, and the satirical site effectively ridicules those who shop at Wal-Mart. Such websites could have a negative impact on public impressions of the company, although to be fair neither complaint is new or obscure, and neither has had a negative impact on the company's revenues, growth or profits in the past. These sites largely appear to appeal to those who already share those sentiments about Wal-Mart and they are not framed in a manner that will be especially convincing to the tens of millions of people who are already regular Wal-Mart customers.
Bargaining power of customers: Our main question here is whether Wal-Mart customers can walk away from buying a product at Wal-Mart and find it cheaper elsewhere. For the most part, the answer is no. Wal-Mart has built its reputation by providing products at a considerably lower price than its competitors (Is Wal-Mart good, 2005). Certainly, customers can try to find lower prices at other retailers; and the proliferation of the
Wal-Mart and Employee Rights Labor cost is always considered as the main issue, mostly in case of employees' unionization at Wal-Mart. This was noticed when Wal-Mart showed a remarkable earning at the rate of 44% per annum for its labor working on hourly basis. Another point which brought this issue ahead was when the sales clerk of Wal-Mart in 2001 earned wages below Federal Poverty Scale. According to an issue of
Wal-Mart's most obvious image is that as a low-cost provider. The slogan "Everyday low prices" is common throughout the store and many goods are signed indicated that they have been subject to a recent price reduction. Wal-Mart does appear to want to establish a strong presence in the community. The store is large, as is the parking lot. There is a clear intention to draw a substantial number of customers
Wal-Mart Company background: Amongst the world's biggest sellers as well as top ranking businesses comes the outstanding name of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. It competed against all of the rivals as well as demonstrated outstanding distinction amongst them by providing a profit 3 times bigger than France's Carrefour SA, which happens to be on the second place in the world's leading retailers. The workers at Wal-Mart surpass the volume of 1.2 million. With
Wal-Mart Threats There are a number of threats that Wal-Mart faces in the external environment. These include intellectual property rights, rising cost of production in China, and the threat that is posed by intense competition in its many spaces. As Wal-Mart expands its retail footprint in emerging markets, especially China, it must take into account that the intellectual property protections are different in other parts of the world. In China, for example, one
Wal-Mart Key Issues/Problem Statement: How can Wal-Mart's low cost strategy remain competitive? Root Cause(s): Wal-Mart targets low-income consumers. When forced to raise the price of essentials like food, sales go down. Sales are also down at the end of the month when consumers are running low on their funds and waiting for their paychecks. Wal-Mart will continue to pursue a cost leadership strategy. Advantages/Disadvantages: Advantages include the fact that there are many price-sensitive consumers