Wal-Mart: Business Details, Marketing Strategies And Analysis

Category Walmart

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Table of contents

Company information:

Company name Wal-Mart Stores
Sector Retail defensive

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Founded 02.07.1962
Founder Sam Walton
IPO date Thursday, 01.10.1970
Location Bentonville, Arkansas, US

Fundamentals and financials:

Market cup $240.5 billion
Revenue $490 billion
Employees 2.3 million
Revenue/employee $213000
Net income $12.73 billion
Shares outstanding 2.987 billion
Annual earnings/share $4.17
P/E ratio 19.3
Company management: Gregory Foran (Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer, Walmart U.S.), David Cheesewright (Executive Vice President; President and Chief Executive Officer, Walmart International), C. Douglas McMillon (Director, President and Chief Executive Officer)

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Established way back in 1962, but incorporated in 1969, Wal-Mart is a chain of retail superstores that sells all the essential conveniences at lowered prices to its customer. It was founded by Sam Walton in Rogers, Arkansas.

Since then it moved its headquarters to Bentonville; the business operates all over the US and serves millions of customers on a regular basis.

More about its storied history can be found below.

Financial Data

Walmart can boast with a solid financial performance. Annual revenue number reached $481.317 billion, which is a 0.8% growth in comparison with last year's performance. Operating income – $22.764 billion.
Net sales figures by segment:
US – $307.833 billion, which amounts to 64% of all sales.
International – $116.119 billion, which amounts to 24.1% of all sales.
Sam’s Club – $57.365 billion, which amounts to 11.9% of all sales.
Dividends declared per share $2.00
Total assets: $198.885 billion.

The company upholds three principal financial ideals: strategic allocation of capital, operating discipline, and growth. Low-profit margins used in order to maintain competitive costs is a financial risk, indeed, but this retailer managed to turn it into a winning strategy across the board.
More financials of note below.

Marketing

Walmart offers a broad range of products for its customers: groceries, electronics, entertainment, furniture, clothing and countless others.

The company is using an Everyday Low Price strategy (which also gets implemented in ads), it manages to attract a large number of consumers. It has proven to be quite useful, judging by revenue numbers and visitors – the company serves more than 260 million customers a week.

Walmart uses a mix of advertisements, promotions, and public relations to reach new or loyal customers. Printed and online ads are used, and the advertised 2-day shipping is a substantial factor for consideration.

Structure and Operations

A total of 11,695 stores are open in 28 countries all over the world. 4,672 stores operate in the US alone. Additionally, Sam's Club amounts to 660 locations. On top of that, it operates e-commerce websites in 11 countries.
It’s said that statistically there’s a Walmart store available within 10 miles of 90% of the US population.

2.3 million (1.4 million in the US) employees work at Walmart, and this makes this corporation the largest private employer.
The company invested $2.7 billion into employee training and higher wages, and this was done over the course of the past two years as a push for better-trained employees.

Analysis

Walmart positions itself as an affordable, cost-effective retailer and its expansion is inevitable. On top of an efficient supply chain and distribution channels, this retailer has a strong online presence, with 1 million of products available. Walmart is all about combining online technology and traditional retailing, but the company is exposed to market risks. The company operates internationally and is subject to currency conversion rates, changes in market rates of interest, commodity levels, trends, and other associated economic factors.
Main competitors: Amazon Inc, Alibaba Group, Costco, Target.

See accompanying materials for additional insight.