Identify and describe their customers
Wal-Mart is among the, numerous lucrative, private employers within United States. It prides itself on providing quality customer services and outstanding products at considerate prices. In addition, this organization believes in fair treatment of their customers and attending to their demands. When Sam Walton established Wal-Mart in 1962, it was his idea to reflect on the dreams of the community and the principles of every customer. The idea developed and became Wal-Mart’s organizational culture.
An organization culture is the thing that an organization values most and such a value redirects the organization on how to operate their business. The founder, Sam Walton, believed if one desires to excel and portray some passion towards his work, the, he/she must show loyalty towards the customers. Wal-mart trains its workers on how to solve problems within the organization and focus on delighting the customer. The company trains customers on the approach to use in learning what customers’ needs and any training they require to use certain products (Burt & Sparks, 2001, Pg. 1463-1487
Another strategy that a wal-mart uses is training its employees on the importance of portraying a friendly and warm welcome to the customers. This is a strategy used to enhance the customer’s shopping experience. Wal-mart invests many resources on training employees, to embrace the philosophy of “satisfaction guaranteed”. In addition, the company trains its employee on exceptional customer skills, since Wal-mart is certain that if customers get quality services and acquire their products at fair prices, then they remain loyal to the business. Wal-Mart also prides itself in the idea that most of its employees are its customers, since it is the company’s philosophy to give back to the society and the customers (Abramson Demense, Gardner, 2002, Pg. 48-50).
Bargaining power of customers
Despite all the competitive measures Wal-Mart uses to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals, it operates under an, exclusive competitive, environment. It experiences many competitive pressures from the general merchandise, and some little forces from the warehouse societies and the supermarket retailers (Barbaro, 2007, Pg.100).
However, it grows and continuous to expand in the presence of the harsh environment, both internally and externally. The rival competitors are present at national and global level, and this compels Wal-Mart to have a continuous improvement on their operations in order to retain the loyalty of their customers. There is stiff competition on pricing strategies, locality, store dimensions, design and setting, product mix, expertise and innovation and the overall reputation. In the market, there is a lot of pressure from the economies of scale (Cherie Et Al, 2008, Pg. 167-177).
The top vendors vertically incorporate numerous functions, for instance, purchasing, production, promotion and shipping services. Such large-scale performance bestows the stiff competitors a cost advantage over the small-scale vendors. The highest and primary vendors that offer stiff competition to Wal-Mart are the Target and the Kmart vendors. On the other hand, retail competition comes from the retail …