A detailed SWOT of Walmart for the year 2016 outlining its strengths, financial position, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Get a view of the current position of the retail giant. More @ cheshnotes.com/wal-mart-rising-competition-from-amazon-and-costco/

1. WAL-MART SWOT Analysis - 2016
Fortune 500 ranking - 1
Wal-Mart’s business approach has changed a lot recently
based upon which the company has clearly gained in terms of
customer base and financial strength. Wal-Mart showed
significant improvement in several areas apart from becoming
the second largest online retailer after Amazon. Improvements
were marked in areas like IT and HR too.
The wages Wal-Mart has been paying its workers were known
to be the lowest in the industry. Continued protest from
diverse groups saw it changing its policies. Apart from it, the
brand has also made significant investments in IT. The US
division saw its sales rising as well as improvements in
customer service. Its food business constitutes more than half
of its sales and the company has shifted its focus towards
organic and fresh food. Despite all these achievements, there
remain some big challenges before the brand. The growth of
Walmart E-commerce is behind its main rivals. Its Sam’s club
unit is also facing significant competitive pressure from
Costco and is struggling to keep up. More than anything else,
a strong US dollar internationally is affecting the profits of its
international division.
A few words about Wal-Mart before moving on to SWOT:
Walmart has been the target of severe criticism and attacks

2. regarding its supply chain as well as over its human resource
policies and employee wages. However, there is still enough
reason that it is considered good for America. Its size has
always enabled it to provide what the other retailers cannot.
The retail giant has efficiently devoted its strengths to the
American consumer. While being criticized for depressing
wages and for its Bangladeshi suppliers, the retailer has still
provided the American consumers the biggest benefit - the
lowest prices. Undoubtedly, Walmart means smart retail and
its size is a major factor that enables the brand to do the
unbelievable things it does.
CEO: C. Douglas McMillon
KEY Financials:
Source: Fortune 500

3. Number of Employees: 2,300,000
What is SWOT?
'SWOT' is an acronym that stands for Strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats. It is a powerful strategic
management tool that can help know one's important strengths
and weaknesses as well as plan to exploit the opportunities
available to the business as well as counter the threats.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal factors and
opportunities and threats external. So basically, SWOT is a
tool designed to help you reduce your weaknesses as well as
counter the threats to improve the business' chances of success
by exploiting available opportunities and increasing the
business' strengths. Companies conduct a SWOT before they
embark on a new strategy or before they make an important
business move like invest in a new project. Below is a SWOT
of Wal-Mart, the retail giant:

4. Walmart Strengths:
Walmart's main strength is its brand image. It has been on the
Fortune 500 list for 22 years and is known to be one of the
biggest brands in the retail industry. Financially too, it is in
a very strong position. During the recent years, Walmart
made some remarkable changes to its approach resulting in an
increase in profits and revenue. Overall, in the recent years it
achieved sharper growth in profits and revenue. The brand has
an excellent IT infrastructure in place to support its fast pace
of growth. Apart from that in US as well as internationally the
brand has acquired quite a large customer base.
Walmart Weaknesses:
Walmart has adopted the 'EDLP' pricing strategy. This is also
its key point of differentiation. Under the EDLP strategy, it
keeps the everyday prices for its products low. While this
strategy helps the brand achieve large sales, the margins

5. remain relatively thin compared to the competitors who sell at
higher prices. Apart from that, the brand does not have a very
good record in terms of HR either since it has been trying to
compensate for the thin margins by paying the staff less.
Some of its brands like the Sam's Club are struggling against
their rivals. In the area of E-commerce too Wal-
Mart's growth is weaker compared to Amazon.
Walmart Opportunities:
HR is an important area where the brand can make major
improvements since it has still not been able to
achieve something highly significant in terms of HR apart from
improving the wages recently. A large scope for further
changes still remains in terms of improving the work
conditions and employee morale. The emerging Asian
markets also present major opportunities for the brand where
it can gain by forming strategic partnerships with the local
brands.
Walmart Threats:
Being a big brand does not come easy and the brands like
Walmart have to face significant competition whether it is
domestically or internationally. Competition poses a major
threat to Walmart and especially that from Amazon and
Costco. Another major threat is that of a stronger dollar. A
stronger dollar internationally means that the profits will be

6. low for Wal-Mart. The recent years saw dollar grow stronger
internationally which meant that the profits of the
international division of Wal-Mart had to suffer.
Recommendations:
Apart from focusing more on E-commerce, Wal-Mart needs
to revive its Sam's Club strategy. There is also a need to
attend to other needs like working on improving employee
morale to make the brand image stronger.