Wal-Mart SWOT Internal Analysis & SWOT Currently

Wal-Mart SWOT Internal Analysis & SWOT Currently one of Wal-Mart's biggest assets is it powerful retail brand name. The company has branded itself as the low cost leader in their industry and consumer perceive the brand as offering value for money, convenience and a wide range of products all in one store (Marketing Teacher, N.d.). Wal-Mart has been able to build this brand image over time by focusing on providing consumer the lowest cost possible in their industry.

Over many years consumers have begun to associate the Wal-Mart brand with primarily value which offers the company many advantages. What are the two or three biggest strengths the company has that allow it to make the company's vision come to fruition? A major strength that Wal-Mart has is that it sells many consumer necessities. This has allowed the company to avoid many of the negative aspects of the economic cycle as Wal-Mart's goods are bought in all cycles of economic growth and contraction (Guenette, 2012).

This has allowed the company some stability in its growth path and also allowed it to develop some of the world's most efficient supply chains. Since the demand for Wal-Mart's retail goods have held fairly stable over time it has allowed the company to focus on its low cost leader strategy and experience unparalleled growth. The company came in second on the 2011 Fortune 500 list and Wal-Mart produced $446,950 million in revenue in 2011, and possessed 10,130 total store locations as of today, including Wal-Mart U.S., Wal-Mart International, and Sam's Club (Guenette, 2012). 2.

What are its main competitive advantages? Wal-Mart's primary competitive advantage comes from the focus of being the low cost leader in their industry which has positioned them in certain ways over the years. Wal-Mart has been able to assume market leadership position primarily due to its efficient integration of suppliers, manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution to stores. Its supply chain strategy has four key components: vendor partnerships, cross docking and distribution management, technology, and integration (University of San Fransisco, N.d.).

Through these activities Wal-Mart has develop the infrastructure that allows them to deliver products to consumers at the best possible price. Competitors will almost always spend more getting products to their shelves than Wal-Mart which makes it hard for them to compete with Wal-Mart on price. Another competitive advantage that Wal-Mart offers consumers is convenience. Wal-Mart carries a wide array of different goods that a consumer would regularly shop for and it does so all under one roof.

Furthermore, Wal-Mart differentiates is service by being open 24 hours, offering food, dry goods and services, and many other types of items all in one location. Therefore it is not only the low cost but the convenience of shopping at Wal-Mart that attracts many of its customers. Wal-Mart has both the low cost (primary) and differentiation (secondary) based advantages while some of its competitors struggle with creating and defending just one competitive advantage (Romero, 2005). 3.

What internal weaknesses can you find? Wal-Mart is no longer the low cost leader on many items that it sells. Although Wal-Mart can generally compete without other competitors that operate in similar ways, other business models have chipped away at Wal-Mart's low cost leader dominance. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, John Jannarone reports on a study which compared prices on a diverse basket of products: it found Wal-Mart is 19% more expensive than Amazon [AMZ].

Jannarone writes (Denning, 2012): "Wal-Mart is losing business to rivals of different shapes and sizes. Customer traffic at U.S. stores has declined for five straight quarters. Meanwhile, sales have surged at discounters like Dollar Tree and Family Dollar Stores [FDO].

A recent study by Wells Fargo [WFC] showed that those chains often charge less than Wal-Mart, though they carry a much smaller selection of items." Although Wal-Mart has a sophisticated web presence and unique features such as ship-to-store available to consumers, the company only holds a small fraction of the online market place in their industry. The way that Wal-Mart is positioned in their industry could serve as a significant internal weakness into the future.

Another weakness is that since Wal-Mart sells so many different types of goods that it does not have a lot of flexibility in comparison to much of the competition and its customer service suffers as well (Zenith Consulting, N.d.). For instance, it is hard to train employees to be experts in the products offered when the company offers everything from televisions and computers to food and pharmaceuticals.

The broad product mix that one might find at Wal-Mart is very difficult to manage effectively and it is not difficult ask a question about a product to a Wal-Mart employee that they have no idea how to answer. Conclusion Wal-Mart has been able to build this brand image over time by focusing on providing consumer the lowest cost possible in their industry. Over many years consumers have begun to associate the Wal-Mart brand with primarily value which offers the company many advantages. Wal-Mart's primary competitive advantage comes from.