Globalization of Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart is a brand that is well known around the world, especially in the USA. It has gradually developed into the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart’s globalization efforts have been happening rapidly. But have they been successful in all aspects of their international expansion or not? This is the main thought that is going to be discussed in this essay. The questions I will be looking at are based on a case called “Wal-Mart takes on the world” from the book of International Business The Challenge of Global Competition eleventh edition – Ball, McCulloch, Geringer, Minor, and McNett. Questions are the following:

Walmart’s international operations dwarf that of Costco’s. Given the vast number of stores Walmart has around the world, it seems obvious that these international stores are creating value for Walmart. Despite Costco’s obvious success from its profitable Canadian stores, this company’s international sales sometimes suffer when the U.S. dollar appreciates. Though, the same could be said for just about any U.S. based company operating overseas. Both Costco and Walmart should be thankful

However, even though Wal-Mart has developed such muscles as a multinational retail company, it has failed in some foreign markets and withdrawn services. Despite the fact that market cultures between Europe and America do not vary much, Wal-Mart got chocked out of the rich German market; the problem caused mainly by cross-cultural idiosyncrasies by the Germans. The same case happened in South Korea in 2006 when Wal-Mart had to bow out of the market that is not as much pro-American system. While in Japan, Wal-Mart failed to influence the market even by their low-pricing strategy due to failure in beating customer prejudice. In these cases, Wal-Mart has learned that the foreign markets are not always like America, thus thorough market study should

1. Evaluate Walmart’s globalization strategy over the last two decades. Where did the retailer struggle? Where did it do well? Can location characteristics explain the differences in Walmart performance

ReferencesCourser, Z. (2005). Issue Analysis: Wal-Mart and the Politics of American Retail. Competitive Enterprise Institute. Retrieved on November 28, 2009 from http://cei.org/pdf/4992.pdfJuhasz, A. (2005). Wal-Mart: Reaping Profits from the WTO & NAFTA. Organic Consumers Association. Retrieved on November 28, 2009 from http://www.organicconsumers.org/btc/walmart010406.cfmNews by Topic. (2009). Wal-Mart Facts and News. Retrieved November 27, 2009 fromhttp://walmartstores.com/FactsNews/FeaturedT

Wal-Mart began as a small discount retailer in Rogers, Ark., Wal-Mart has thousands of stores in the U.S. and has expanded internationally. Through innovation, they are letting customers shop anytime and anywhere online, with mobile devices and in their stores. Wal-Mart went to public in 1970, and it became the first company to reach 1 billion within 9 years. Up to 2004 Wal-Mart has 4,906 store world-wild, and 9 billion in profit. Despite some of controversial issues about its operation approaches, Wal-Mart’s dramatic rapidly growth is phenomenal in business community, and its successful business model has been eulogized world-wide (n.d., Walmart, 2016). Wal-Mart creates opportunities and brings value to customers and communities around the world. Wal-Mart operates over 11,500 retail units under 72 different name in 28 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. They employ 2.2 million associates around the world and 1.4 million in the U.S. (Our business, 2016). Wal-Mart is world 's largest retailer and the world 's largest, fastest-growing and most dynamic ecommerce organization. Based in California 's Silicon Valley with operations in Bangalore, India and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Wal-Mart’s Global e-Commerce leads all online and mobile innovation for their corporation. Wal-Mart became an international company in 1991, and they operate in 27 countries outside the United States. With more than 6,200 stores internationally, they leverage their global resources to meet

Walmart Stores Incorporated is a retail giant that went from a small town business which was started in 1962 by Sam Walton, to a Global phenomenon. Walmart is ranked as one of the largest retail stores globally. It has over 2 million employees and revenues of over $480 billion in sales as of January 2016. (Chain store age, 2016). It is an icon in the cultural fabric of America and has also firmly established itself as a competitor in the global market with the store 's expansion globally. Walmart is unique in maintaining low prices and quality products in a market that seek high profit margins to sustain visibility and customers. While Walmart has maintained its impact on the global retail market and in business, it has not done so without facing many challenges and obstacles. Walmart has managed to draw criticism from its stakeholders for which it has had to defend its marketing strategies and how it affects them as stakeholders. One of the major criticism that Walmart has had to face by its competitor stakeholders, is its effect on smaller retail businesses once it moves into a community. Once Walmart opens a superstore in a community, many local stores go out of business. This is as a result of Walmart pricing and low cost products which makes it hard for competing stakeholders to stay in the market. These stakeholders have accused Walmart of driving down prices, whereby they were forced to go out of business. Walmart, however, has often defended its pricing as

In 1997, Wal-Mart entered Europe through Germany by the entry mode of an acquisition. With a GNP at about €2 trillion, and a population with 80 million potential consumers, Germany was very appealing for Wal-Mart. They acquired 21 Wertkauf unit and one year later an additional 71 Spar units, for the immediate access of distribution channels, personnel and the network of suppliers etc. In spite of this, the choice of an acquisition, at least for the terrible conditions of Wertkauf and Spar stores, was not the right one – Wal- Mart had to renovate them costing millions of dollars. The second

Wal-Mart entered the Mexican market in 1991 and hasn’t looked back. Using a form of globalization called glocalization, Wal-Mart achieved tremendous success in Mexico. The perception of Wal-Mart globally is less than stellar because of what has been coined as Wal-Martization. Some have also called Wal-Mart a ‘Cathedral of Consumption.’ But Wal-Mart learned the hard way how to become successful in the global marketplace. It didn’t just happen overnight. By utilizing five glocalization strategies, Wal-Mart became the largest private employer in Mexico.

WalMart's initial international expansion has historically seen more failures than successes. Starting in Germany, WalMart pushed the boundaries of cultural norms by insisting on having large superstores that consolidated hundreds of product lines together, while also ignoring the local union laws regarding hourly work schedules (Christopherson, 2007). The German government and most importantly, customers, rejected the store as they preferred to have a series of smaller retailers to purchase from. When news of the hourly schedule conflicts with the German unions became widespread news throughout the country, WalMart was forced to sell the companies it had acquired as part of

Upon entering the African market, Walmart hoped to accomplish a number of strategic objectives that would allow the global organization to expand its reach in a largely corporate-ignored continent. To begin, if Walmart was to establish its own location without local cultural assistance, it’s no secret that the corporation would likely struggle or suffer in a number of ways. Not only that, it was unlikely that the local government would allow Walmart to enter on its own with the company’s controversial history of being a low paying and anti-union employer, for fear that it would become a threat to the local economy. The corporate giant had to devise a different approach to achieve success in this continent. Walmart’s primary

Walmart has slowed its growth in the United States. To continue to grow and to remain a competitor in the retail discount industry Walmart has to become a global market. For Walmart to be successful in becoming a global company the following strategies will be discussed:

The following paper is a summary of how Wal-Mart has faced limited growth on American soil, was forced to look else- where for growth opportunities, particularly in foreign countries, where market shares were already established.

In 1997, Wal-Mart entered the German retail market by acquiring failing German retail chain stores Wertkauf but encountered problems quickly. The Wal-Mart has proved a resounding success in the United States by providing everyday low price guarantee, inventory control, and effective distribution. (Introduction)

In the face of its Brazil’s expansion, Wal-Mart has a competitive advantage over its competitors because of its low price aggressiveness. Walmart implemented the same unique characteristics and qualities