Competitive Advantage of Walmart

Walmart, an influential force in the retail world, with the heart and soul of founders invested in the business. The retail market is a harsh one. Walmart adopted a certain philosophy since its foundation and adjusted it to evolving demands of customers. The business model of Walmart has a differentiation strategy, competitive advantage, and accurate segmentation strategy behind its tactics. Through analysis of specific marketing activity, we will together build the whole image of both marketing and overall business success. Our journey of uncovering he tricks up their sleeves begins now!

Analyzing the Marketing Strategy of Walmart is a great start.․․

Providing superior service and product offering to the customer is already a point of parity in the market. Behind the service of Walmart is a thoroughly designed marketin

g strategy aimed at boosting sales and ensuring growth.

Diverse marketing strategies serve the purpose of constantly converting to sales and leading to the company’s growth.

Walmart has developed its marketing strategy around ensuring convenience for customers. Customers appreciate a service that saves them time and money.

Following this logic, Walmart wasted no effort in becoming a top choice for one-stop shopping. They simplified the shopping process to an extent that customers can shop for anything and everything at Walmart.

At the end of the day, the purpose of business is to provide solutions to daily problems. Walmart certainly does that.

The retail giant has the ultimate coverage of locations. Almost 4800 Walmart stores in the US are strategically located to reach the maximum number of customers.

Additionally, Walmart International has approximately 5200 locations in 24 countries, which are located based on centers of demand. About 600 other stores belonging to the chain named Sam’s Club U.S., which offers bulk sales and specialty services.

Besides the dominant physical presence, Walmart quickly realized the importance of online operations as well. With today’s fast-paced tech world, every service or product must become simple and convenient to consume.

Following this tendency, Walmart owns the Walmart.com website and a mobile application to provide even easier access. Covering all the major channels of sales leaves them with capturing the maximum number of customers.

What competitive advantages of Walmart give them that extra edge?

With Walmart being a market leader, other companies follow its footsteps and copy actions to stay relevant.

The retail market is saturated with powerful players, but what gives Walmart an extra edge in this competition? Walmart’s competitive advantages originate from its foundation since they owe to those advantages for the exponential growth.

A low-price strategy is the cornerstone of Walmart, meaning they concentrate on high sales volume and lower prices. Walmart’s supply chain management has given them their most powerful competitive advantages.

These include reduced costs of keeping inventory, deep assortment, and all of this contribute to competitive pricing for Walmart.

Walmart carefully monitors all the components that affect the pricing of products on the shelves. Moreover, Walmart became famous with that advantage, thus they aggressively communicate that idea to the public.

Furthermore, that increases their customer base and brand loyalty. The screenshot below is an example of how Walmart minimizes costs and maximizes convenience.

The promotional banner advertises the offer of Walmart for no minimum order for free shipping. With a 15-day trial at the beginning, followed by a subscription fee, customers get an exclusive delivery service.

The whole package carries the name Walmart+, an exclusive membership with numerous customer benefits. The benefits package includes free shipping, lower prices on fuel at stations owned by Walmart, and the most valuable saving: time.

Yet again, we come back to Walmart’s strategy of targeting convenience.

The deep assortment in typical Walmart stores is ideal for an optimal shopping experience. Walmart cherishes the idea of “one-stop shopping”; therefore, the variety and selection of products and services must support that.

For online shoppers of Walmart, there are product lines specifically designed for certain purposes or events. An example is the Father’s Day gift ideas presented below.

The website has a smart algorithm, which categorizes products suitable for events and adds value to the choosing process. Such pages feature the top preferences of the buyer, products grouped in categories, product combos and many other offers.

The specific competitive advantage of Walmart here is that they link products to certain events and simplify the purchase process.

The journey continues with Growth Strategy and Market Penetration of Walmart…

For a retail giant like Walmart, its customers are the primary opportunity for developing a growth strategy. With a strong customer base, Walmart focuses on new product and service offerings to generate more income from existing customers.

If the customer bought some candles, offer him a chandelier and a free delivery. Surely, Walmart’s offerings are much more complex than that, but the concept is the same.

The Capital One Walmart Rewards Card is an example of Walmart’s diverse offerings. The card offers cashback from purchases in Walmart.com, from stores, and all the places where Master card is accepted. It is not a direct promotion for sales, but it certainly unleashes new income potential.

The benefits act like a trigger for existing Walmart customers to be interested in the card. The biggest interest for cashback is for purchases from Walmart.com.

Thus, getting the card means generating more sales via online channels and growing the business in this specific direction. Walmart is no longer a simple retail chain, but a complex alliance of diverse capabilities.

Logically, their products and services reinforce each other and help the business scale towards various directions. As a result, Walmart seeks to become the first solution to the daily needs of customers.

The Differentiation Strategy of Walmart is what puts them on the map…

In the competitive market of retail, all the big players have their signature style. Getting successful by copying others is not an option, and you will not get far.

To ensure the company’s growth and customer loyalty, Walmart adopted a complex differentiation strategy. Furthermore, they designed the business in a way that customer and business serve mutually.

The superior pricing model of Walmart has become the foundation of operations. Other differentiating factors branch from the pricing and establish Walmart’s dominance. One of the factors differentiating Walmart is the presence in hard-to-reach places.

You may find Walmart stores everywhere in the U.S. The strategy is simple: opening a store in the location, killing the competition with pricing, enjoying a dominant presence. Due to their ultimate weapon – the pricing – local competition is no longer able to operate.

Thus, Walmart becomes the only mega store and captures the majority of local consumers. This aspect of Walmart’s differentiation strategy is only a portion of what they have built.

Undoubtedly, Walmart is a sustainable business. Their operations not only shadow others but also assist in growing a healthy business environment. The differentiation strategy of Walmart includes assisting businesses with Sam’s Club chain in the U.S.

The chain offers low prices on merchandise for bulk purchases to small business owners. This helps them grow fast and decrease their costs significantly. Overall, Walmart’s growth strategy, these actions might seem relatively small.

However, they contribute greatly to the big picture and help Walmart stand out from the competition.

Analyzing Walmart’s Segmentation Strategy will uncover its ideal buyer persona.

Every marketing campaign targets a distinct group of people with similar lifestyles, attitudes, and preferences. Through a thorough analysis of this commercial, we will uncover the ideal buyer persona for Walmart.

Walmart has designed the commercial entertainingly and engagingly. It features a personification of a fridge. The accessories on it accent the grimaces of a person with a sad expression. The fridge tells its story and complains about being empty and alone.

In the meantime, the mother and daughter of the house use the new Inhome Delivery service by Walmart. To clarify more, delivery is not merely door-to-door, but orders arrive directly in the house, with permission of owners.

For security measures, owners can see live footage of the delivery person’s actions. The delivery person carefully puts the order in the fridge, living the latter with a “smile”.

This warm and catchy ad is enjoyable to watch, yet very informative of the new Walmart service. Walmart presents all the advantages of the service.

Additionally, they emphasize problems it solves and answers the questions that might arise in the minds of potential customers. The commercial concentrates on customers who catch the meaning of entertaining ads. Therefore, we can conclude that Walmart targets the segment of the Conscious Progressives.

Who are Conscious Progressives?

Lifestyle and values: Conscious Progressives are an open-minded and intellectual segment of young people. They have constant strive for new information and knowledge that will help them grow or make important decisions.

On the other hand, intellect and personality are the primary factors of defining who they are. They enjoy discussions and debates. After analyzing a particular issue from different perspectives, they want credit for their strong opinion. Openness, yet preparedness makes them interesting for discussions.

Representatives of this segment value deeper friendship and have many friends. Gatherings with friends is a common leisure activity, whether it be outside at bars or at home.

They have a core circle of friends and other groups of different social acquaintances outside that circle. Closest friends give them security and memorable moments, and acquaintances give them many new insights.

Attitude to personal life is firm, as they prefer strong long-term relationships. They are typically loyal partners and value relationships strongly.

Conscious Progressives are very active socially and always seek discoveries and new experiences. Their social activity brings new people, new places and learning opportunities.

Logically, exploring foreign countries is a favored leisure activity. Their career is a logical continuation of life preferences. People in this segment like facing new challenges.

Their decisions must contribute to the success of the company. Salary is important, but secondary to the nature of the work.

Attitude to shopping.

Representatives of this segment pay a lot of attention to being attractive. They like dressing well and looking good, but without many styles, just casual and good quality clothing.

However, they are practical in the shopping process. Packaging and other image elements are secondary for them. Surely, there is an emotional factor in this process, but they are more demanding to functionality than appeal.

Making conscious decisions refers to shopping attitudes as well. Therefore, quality is a top factor in the purchase decision process. The functionality of the product must be in line with all the presentation.

As people in this segment like dressing well, they sometimes shop for fashion items, but in the same casual style. Comfort is an important factor, and this explains their preference for functionality over style.

Interesting facts about Conscious Progressives:

• Newspapers are a popular media channel for the sense of seriousness and sophistication they give to readers.
• Internet is the most common communication mean for reaching friends and acquaintances. This explains the fact that Progressives have many foreign friends.
• Radio is also one of the top media channels because of its authenticity compared to TV shows and media.
• Conscious Progressives enjoy entertaining guests and are good at keeping them happy and satisfied with the experience.
• They are ecologically conscious as well; they try recycling and prefer brands that give them the sense of “green”.
• People in this segment seek recognition from family members. They love showing their achievements and creations and make sure the family recognizes they are on the right way.
• Reading books is one of the top activities, alongside sports activities with friends on weekends (cycling, football, etc.).

Throughout this analysis, we have covered treats of Walmart’s uniqueness and its core values along this path. In a saturated market of retail, competitive advantages and differentiation strategy are what help the company stand out. With a clear vision of the future, Walmart knows their directions to grow. The competitive market of retail constantly introduces new challenges. The dynamic demand of customers is one of them, but Walmart has a counteraction. By adapting product offerings to those needs and integrating innovation, Walmart will stay on the growth path. That is it for today, be sure to check out our main page for more posts like this.