Costco Corporate Strategy

Costco Wholesale Corporation’s organizational structure is based on the company’s current operation and locations as well as the market. The organization structure is the shape to connect different organizational components to address the business needs. Costco’s organizational structure active enables the management of operations in different markets. Even though Costco is the biggest membership warehouse club in America, and designed it structure for success in the management of it business in the U.S. and overseas. Costco would have to change its organizational structure within time to suit the expanding global operations.

Costco is a company that has grown their business through customer service that goes above and beyond. Costco not only focuses on external customers they also care about their internal customers. They continue to strive to have affordable prices, great benefits for their internal customers, and Lenient return/refund policy. Costco has figured out a way to expand their membership by word of mouth(Timm,2014). They have done this by building a strong relationship with their customers. Having a strong relationship with customers is important, especially for a business such as Costco. Seeing as Costco is a retail business a majority of their customers will be return customers. Ensuring that their customers are satisfied has proved to be a key factor in their

Due to the market; bargains were more important to consumers. Fifty-six of Costco warehouses exceeded $200 million in sales in fiscal 2010, and two of these units each did more than $300 million. This rate of revenue is highly attributable to the strong entrepreneurial culture that encourages its employees and management’s teams to be creative and contribute new ideas to allow the company to constantly evolve and improve. It has been well publicized that Costco rewards and compensates its employees well. It is a well oiled machine that reciprocates its success with its customers and employees.

Design of Goods and Services- Costco can be seen to be in their maturity stages of their life. Therefore, it is recommended for Costco to expand its Pharmacy department by at least 50%.

Costco is among the leading global retailers which provide customers a wide range of merchandise, ranging from small to well-known brands. The company began operations in 1983. Over the years, Costco has been a retailer in low cost membership-only leader, in warehouse club of merchandise. Moreover, Costco does not offer frills warehouse business models as its competitors do.  Costco’s major competitors are BJ’s Wholesale Club and Sam Club (Costco, 2010).

According to Deloitte’s 2014 Global Powers of Retailing Report, it identifies the 250 largest retailers around the world based on publicly available data for fiscal 2012 encompassing companies’ fiscal years ended through to June 2013; however, here mainly focuses on the Top 10 retailers’ analysis.

Costco has grown from a single location in Seattle, Washington and is now the largest membership based retailer and currently the 6th largest overall retailer in the United States. In 2011, Costco saw a 10% increase in sales and in 2012, Costco is planning on opening 14 new store locations, three of which will be outside of the US. Costco is no longer a small local retailer but now an international company with different threats and opportunities. As the company continues to grow, it is important for Costco to understand the external threats and opportunities that will impact the company in either a positive or negative way. In order understand these forces a SLEPT analysis is used to analyze the social, legal, economical,

The Costco strategy for getting into the wedding gown business is to have a set of touring trunk shows at its Western stores during the season where people are planning their weddings. Costco's typical pricing strategy is to undercut competition and make up for this with high volume sales. The company applies this strategy to the wedding gown business as well. Costco offers one of the lowest prices of any company on its wedding dresses. The company's business plan ensures that the details have been fleshed out, and that has led to the unique distribution strategy for wedding gowns.

It’s a very appealing business model because what it does for Costco is it enables them to secure vendor purchasing power in volume. With their large warehouse facilities this enables them to distribute products on their floors efficiently while being able to store any leftover in house. This increases the availability of turnover. Also, with their large warehouses and lack of design beyond what’s necessity, it enables them to provide customer service without over investing in design.

Costco is the best cost provider in the wholesale club category and the strategy is associated with Costco’s capabilities and resources, which includes; a streamlined supply chain, good supplier relationships, purchasing power, high sales volumes, quick inventory turnover, and excellent customer service. The three vital components of the company strategy are low pricing, limited product selection and high-end products acquired in closeouts and liquidations. While Costco strives to beat the competitors pricing, it also delivers exceptional value in its high-end offerings and customer service, giving consumers more for their money. Given its customers are the most affluent of all the warehouse clubs, with average incomes around $75,000 and this strategy works well for Costco. However, these customers are conscious not only about money but also value for the product, this fact is supported by the members who choose for executive

It removes any non essential features and luxurious additions to keep the price low. Also the warehouse retailer has a no advertisement approach unlike its competitors like target and walmart who highly invest in marketing. Fewer items, large volumes helps to provide discounts and drives sales. Compared to its competitors the retailer holds only fraction of a items in its pallets. Costco beliefs in highly paying its employees to obtain minimize the personnel attrition rate and increase employee satisfaction.

Costco has many competitors with the primary two being Sam’s Club, a warehouse wholesale business being managed by Walmart, and BJ’s warehouse. Sam’s Club is offering the same services as Costco. They offer their customers lower prices than traditional stores and like Costco they sell their products in bulk to keep members interested. What makes them a threat to Costco is the cost of becoming a member to shop at their stores. For Costco’s basic membership, known as a Business membership, a price

The world of business has undergone radical and dramatic changes in the last decade changes that present extraordinary challenges for the contemporary manager. A manager is an organizational member who is responsible for planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the activities of the organization so that the goals can be achieved. According to a widely referenced study by Henry Mintzberg, managers serve three primary roles: interpersonal, informational, and decision-making. Management is process of administrating and coordinating resources effectively and efficiently in an effort to achieve the goals of the organization.

Retail industry is a huge market generating trillions of dollars each and every year. Being able to target the correct consumers/buyers within the market is critical to this industry. The business strategy is imperative to attract the customer-base and capture their services to develop reputable and loyal relationships. Generating this type of business will spread a great review based on the company structure and will develop paramount marketing and advertising aspects to support future business. In our current economy businesses that offer low cost to consumers generally will win the business along with adequate customer service and generosity. Costco has developed core values within the operations to deliver the lowest possible prices while providing quality goods and services to the customers (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble, Strickland 2014).

Another way Costco is able to maintain rapid profits is by offering a “broad range of brand name and private-label merchandise at extremely low prices” (Kotler, Keller 524). What makes this strategy so unique is that Costco only carries “3,750 SKU’s” compared to Walmart’s 150,000 SKU’s (Kotler, Keller 524). Because the company only carries the most popular brands, package sizes, flavors and models, Costco is able to manage their inventory efficiently and maintain a high-inventory turnover. Thus, the products are not sitting on the shelves spoiling and the shelve space is maximising its revenue capability. The faster inventory turnover, the faster new products can replace the old, which optimizes profitability. Otherways Costco optimizes their space and resources is through their store design. Selling products off of pallets decrease the time, costs and manpower it takes for a product to be placed on shelves. When an order comes in, it can be immediately sold. Moreover, their low-cost energy usage, simplistic signage, and the use of recycling boxes instead of providing shopping bags helps Costco to maintain their mission of providing “the lowest possible prices” (Kotler, Keller). Due to these extreme cost-saving measures, Costco is able to increase employee wages. In turn, this increase employee retention, which generates more a more knowledgeable staff, which increases customer satisfaction, which then increases customer loyalty and customer retention. All of the