Bus4002

BUS4002
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
REPORT
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Instructor name
Question 1
The supply chain and inventory management, as well as sales success, are at the heart of
Walmart Inc.’s operations management. Effective retail operations management is
critical to the company’s success. All of the 10 decision areas of operations
management are covered by Walmart’s management. The e-commerce company’s
management face these strategic decision areas on a regular basis as they work to
improve the company’s operations. There’s never a markup here. This is
Wall-catchphrase, Mart’s a testament to their belief that cheap prices would keep them
competitive in the market. Wall-early Mart’s use of information technology was based
on this business strategy. It was also embraced in all of Wal-business Mart’s divisions,
including customer and supplier management, inventory control and supply chain
management (Wal-Mart, 2021). In order to improve the effectiveness of
cross-departmental interactions, these information systems are interconnected.
⚫
The information system of Wal-Mart
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Relationship management with customers
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE
EMPHASIS OF WAL-EFFORTS MART’S (CRM).
CRM technology may help a company build long-term relationships with its customers
by allowing them to access vital data. As a result, organization may learn more about
what their consumers want by engaging with their customers (Rigby, Reichheld and
Dawson, 2003). The system works well, but it cannot be used as a replacement for
human contact since the system is just a tool for interpreting data.
SUPPLY CHAIN: EDI AND DISTRIBUTION CENTRE
Wal-Mart is both a retailer and a distributor (wholesaler) at the same time (figure 2). As
a result, a more efficient supply chain may be established since additional information
systems can be integrated into the chain. If Wal-supply Mart’s chain isn’t well-managed,
the company has a bigger opportunity for business inefficiencies since it is both a
supplier and a provider.
INTRODUCTION OF A SUPPLY CHAIN RFID SYSTEM
Although the EDI system can improve the productivity of the supplier, Wal-Mart had to
deal with tens of thousands of products, thus it wasn’t adequate for the retailer. In
addition, Wal-Mart has to keep an eye on out-of-stock products in its stores. Radio
frequency identification was chosen by Wal-Mart because they wanted to ensure their
approach.
WALMART’S GROWTH-ORIENTED STRATEGIES (ANSOFF MATRIX)
Walmart Inc. increases the amount of products and services it sells to its present
customers by offering discounts and other special deals as part of this comprehensive
marketing strategy. Among the company’s cost-cutting initiatives is a wholesale bundle
discount for numerous commodities. As a result, Walmart is increasing its online
presence in order to better serve its consumers. The company’s sales revenue is
expected to rise as a result of the expanded ease of access. Increased market share,
particularly in major retail markets like the United States, is a strategic goal associated
with this intense approach. Walmart uses the selling point of cheap pricing to penetrate
the market, which is done via the generic strategy of cost leadership.
THE GROWTH OF THE MARKET.
The importance of Walmart Inc.’s aggressive expansion plan is secondary.
Developing new markets for the company’s current products and services is part of
market development. With this approach, Walmart establishes new locations in
countries where the retailer does not already operate.
DEVELOPMENT OF A PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
Product creation is a modest but important tactic used by Walmart Inc. to expand its
retail company. New goods are developed and sold in the markets where the
corporation presently has operations, according to the Ansoff Matrix. Walmart, on the
other hand, invests very little on new product development in this scenario. The retail
sector relies heavily on sales and marketing, hence the corporation invests heavily in
these areas.
DIVERSIFICATION.
As a result of this aggressive expansion strategy, a firm would often launch new
goods and services in whole new areas. When Walmart Inc. bought Vudu Inc., a
provider of content distribution and media technologies, in 2010, it entered the video
streaming industry.
THE STRUCTURE OF WALMART’S MANAGEMENT
Walmart’s organizational structure is hierarchical, with each division reporting to the
next. Hierarchy and function-based definition are two elements of this structure. The
vertical lines of authority and command in an organist are referred to as the
“hierarchy” characteristic. Every employee, with the exception of the CEO, has a
direct report. Top-level corporate directives and mandates are carried out by
Walmart’s middle management all the way down to the lowest ranks of the firm’s
workforce. At the very top, it has a divisional structure as well. There are four
sections, each of which has a format-based shop.
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Reality Check: Wal-Mart
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The Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
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Specialty Wal-Mart shops are everywhere.
⚫
Shop at Sam’s Club or one of their Super centers.
In this way, rather of being tied to a single administrator, each location may operate
independently. The advantage of this structure is that it allows organization to operate
independently and effectively across their many locations, allowing them to better
meet the demands of their customers while also adapting to changes in the business
climate. Additionally, it helps employers get first-hand knowledge of what it takes to
run a retail business, opening the door to potential new hires.
WHAT ARE THE LOGISTICS OF WALMART’S SUPPLY CHAIN?
Walmart U.S. purchased around 78 percent of its retail items via 157 distribution
centers situated across the United States in 2020.
Merchandise from suppliers is sent to the rest of the world.
Walmart has a total of 188 distribution centers across the world, including locations in
Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Central America, Chile, China, Japan, Mexico, South
Africa, and the UK.
Walmart produces and distributes domestic and imported goods to the Walmart
International operational units via these facilities. In January 2020, these distribution
centers handled 83% of Walmart International’s purchases.
WALMART-INTERNATIONAL-DISTRIBUTION-CENTERS
Distribution facilities such as Sam’s Club play an important role as well:
-Distribution by Sam’s Club
Sam’s Club’s distribution operations are primarily focused on cross-docking items
while minimizing held inventory.
QUESTION 2
If you are interested in learning more about what’s going on in your firm, a data
warehouse is the place to go. The ability to make better decisions is enhanced when
one has access to more information. Despite the fact that this design has been around
for a long time, it is seldom used. There is a lack of adoption in the corporate world,
according to several studies. So, on the one hand, the e-commerce market is growing
rapidly and hardware and software advancements are occurring, but very few
organization appear to know how to leverage data warehousing technology to thrive
in e-commerce. E-commerce pioneers and leaders may be found in organization that
have effectively implemented data warehouses. Amazon.com’s success in the
business-to-consumer
e-commerce
sector
and
Walmart’s
success
in
the
business-to-business e-commerce sector are discussed in this article.
WAL-MART INCREASE DATA WAREHOUSE TO SUPPORT SUPPLIERS
ARKANSAS Earlier this week, Wal-Mart Stores in the United States said that it
intends to significantly expand its Web-enabled data warehouse and data-mining
system in order to offer access to a larger quantity of sales history to its suppliers,
boosting their capacity to recognise long-term trends. Customers and suppliers alike
will soon be able to access more information about their purchases from the retailer’s
data warehouse, which recently increased its storage capacity from 44 terabytes. The
business wouldn’t say when suppliers would get access to the increased sales history.
Wal-Mart will supply vendors with 104 weeks of sales data through the Internet after
the initiative is done. Each supplier’s 52-week sales history was limited before the
system change. Approximately 7,000 vendors have Internet access to sales history at
this time.
Officials at Wal-Mart claim that the data warehouse receives roughly 120,000
requests per week on average. Coughlin said in a statement, “It’s truly all about
service to our clients,” he said. We’ve invested in this technology in order to enable
our suppliers and Wal-Mart buyers supply consumers with what they want: the right
product at the right price in the right location. ”
23 JULY 2021: BIG DATA ANALYTICS AT WALMART, THE WORLD’S
LARGEST RETAILER.
Walmart is the world’s biggest retailer, with more than 20,000 locations in 28
countries. The business is now creating the world’s biggest private cloud, capable of
handling 2.5 petabytes of data every hour, so it makes sense. With so much data,
Walmart has set up a state-of-the-art analytics centre at its Bentonville, Arkansas
headquarters called the Data Café.
WALMART EMPLOYS BIG DATA IN PRACTISE.
The Data Café is able to model, manage, and visualise massive amounts of data,
including 40 petabytes of recent transactional data. “If you can’t gain insights until
you’ve analysed your sales for a week or a month, you have lost sales,” senior
statistical analyst Naveen Peddmail told me when we discussed the project.
As a result, quick access to information is essential. When Peddamail informed me
about a grocery store that couldn’t figure out why sales had suddenly dropped in a
certain product area,
THE SPECIFICS OF THE PROBLEM
Additionally, the Café collects data from 200 different sources, such as weather,
economics, Nielsen, telecom, social media, gas prices, and local events databases, in
addition to the 200 billion rows of transactional data (covering just the last two
weeks!). Walmart’s algorithms are built to whiz through these massive databases in
milliseconds, so they can come up with real-time answers to any issue they come
across.
Walmart clearly has a wealth of data at its disposal, as well as the manpower to deal
with it. However, Walmart’s capacity to respond swiftly to new data may be borrowed
by any organist. If your internal set-up does not enable you to swiftly make choices
and adjustments based on what the data tells you, investing in data capabilities is a
waste of money.
WHEN IT COMES TO ONLINE RETAIL, WALMART VS AMAZON
Amazon is usually at the top of the list when discussing internet retail’s superpowers.
In 2020, internet sales accounted for 14.3% of total retail sales in the United States,
with Amazon accounting for 40% of that total.
It’s no secret that Walmart has been working hard to catch up to Amazon’s e
Commerce dominance, and it’s not stopping anytime soon. For the first time, Walmart
became the third-largest e Commerce retailer in the United States in 2020. Walmart’s
online customer base increased by 207 percent from early 2020 and early 2020.
COMPETITION BETWEEN WALMART AND AMAZON
LIST OF OBSTACLES ENCOUNTERED BY RETAIL GIANTS AMAZON AND WALMART.
WALMART FACES COMPETITION
For Walmart, its greatest problem is its inexperience and lack of knowledge in online
retail. While Amazon began as a brick-and-mortar store, Walmart is a relative
newcomer to the online retail scene. Prior to Walmart’s acquisition of Jet.com in 2020,
the company had only a minimal focus on e-commerce.
When it comes to product placement in the marketplace, Walmart takes a less
seller-friendly approach. Sellers must offer their products at the lowest price
accessible online, not only on Walmart.com, in order to be eligible for the Buy Box.
In addition, Walmart’s marketplace vendors have significantly fewer options than do
those on Amazon.
CHALLENGES FROM AMAZON
In comparison to Amazon, Walmart has more than 11,000 brick-and-mortar locations.
90% of Americans are within a 10-mile radius of a Walmart. To compete with
Walmart’s massive physical presence, Amazon has developed Amazon Go shops and
Amazon brick-and-mortar bookstores, but has a long way to go.
Advantages of Walmart over Amazon
Each e-commerce powerhouse has its own distinct set of issues and benefits to deal
with.
SEVERAL BENEFITS FROM SHOPPING AT WALMART
Brick-and-mortar retailers still account for 85 percent of all transactions in the United
States. This is a big triumph for Walmart, which has over 11,000 retail locations
throughout the globe. Although there are only 481 Whole Foods Market shops in the
United States and 41 additional sites operated by Amazon,
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Walmart, on the other hand, generates more money than Amazon:
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It is estimated that Wal-Mart made over $500 billion in sales in 2020.
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A total of $141.4 billion was made in North American sales by Amazon in 2020.
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When it comes to supermarket purchases, the disparity is much more pronounced:
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During the last year, Amazon raked in close to $20 billion in sales from food
alone.
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Walmart had $270 billion in sales in 2020.
In spite of Amazon owning Whole Foods and delivering groceries through Prime
Now, AmazonFresh, and AmazonPantry, Walmart remains the world’s biggest
grocery retailer. On-demand grocery pickup at thousands of locations, grocery
delivery in many areas, and free two-day shipping on online food and home orders
over $35 are all available at Walmart. (Amazon’s subscription-based grocery services
cost a fee.) While Amazon saw an 8 percent rise in digital food sales, Walmart saw an
increase of 53 percent.
ADVANTAGES OF AMAZON
Them is Amazon’s concentration on technology, innovation, and all things digital that
gives it the edge. From 2020 to 2023, Amazon’s digital ad spend share is predicted to
rise from 3% to 8%. In terms of revenue, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon’s
fastest-growing and most profitable business unit. In order to better serve customers,
Amazon has increased its AWS cloud service options.
⚫
For on-site advertising placements, Walmart just announced a self-serve mode
(similar to Amazon’s), but it has a long way to go before catching up with the
advertising alternatives Amazon gives suppliers.
⚫
Walmart’s third-party marketplace, on the other hand, is still in its infancy.
Amazon claims that their third-party collection accounts for 50% of its total sales.
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Amazon also has a stranglehold on the garment market, thanks to Prime
Wardrobe and the purchase of Zappos in 2009. Over half of Amazon’s 75+
private label businesses are clothing lines, and they have a number of in-house
garment companies.
Amazon’s Prime membership programme is one of its most popular offerings. More
than 100 million individuals in the United States pay $13/month or $119/year for
Amazon Prime, which includes free shipping, video content, music streaming, ebooks,
and more. . Those who subscribe to Amazon Prime get free shipping on all eligible
items, regardless of how long it takes to get there. If you want to take advantage of
Prime shipping, Amazon’s FBA service allows third-party sellers to do just that.
AMAZON VS. WALMART: WHO’S THE WINNER?
Customers, who can now purchase practically anything online, may be the only ones
who benefit from the continued growth of these e Commerce behemoths. Whether
you shop online or in-store, Amazon and Walmart are part of an ever-changing retail
landscape. When it comes to third-party sales and marketplaces, Amazon has a
significant advantage over Walmart. When it comes to resources and digital
marketing chances for marketplace merchants, Walmart may be able to catch up.
⚫
So, what’s the bottom line here? Having a presence on both platforms might be
advantageous to sellers.
⚫
“Shopper overlap” is one reason Walmart.com is a beneficial investment for
merchants, but Amazon is still the clear e Commerce leader.
Customers of Amazon.com and Walmart.com share a big percentage of their
shopping habits, according to consumer studies. Over 57% of Amazon customers also
shop at Walmart.com, while 91% of Walmart.com customers shop at Amazon.com.
QUESTION 3
In order to help people across the globe save money and have a better life, Walmart Inc.
(the “Company,” “Walmart,” or “we”) provides them with the ability to shop in retail
locations and online. As a result of our constant innovation, we try to provide our
clients with an omni-channel experience that seamlessly links our e Commerce and
brick and mortar locations. We serve more than 265 million people each week who visit
roughly 11,500 retail locations and several e Commerce websites under 56 banners in
27 countries.
Making life simpler for busy families is our goal, as is operating with discipline,
sharpening our culture, and becoming more digital. To make life simpler for busy
families, we have and will continue to maintain our dedication to pricing leadership and
improving convenience to save our clients time. In order to maintain our consumers’
confidence, we must consistently lead on pricing by offering a wide variety of
high-quality products and services at daily affordable rates (“GDPR”). Everyday low
pricing is part of our GDPR pricing philosophy, which means our consumers can trust
that our prices won’t change even if we run a lot of promotions. It is our goal to keep our
prices low on a daily basis so that we can pass on the savings to our clients.
The Walmart U.S., Walmart International, and Sam’s Club businesses all have separate
financial reports. January 31 marks the conclusion of our fiscal year in the United States
(the “US”) and Canada. Other operations are typically rolled up over the course of a
calendar year with a one-month backward lag. It is important to note that our discussion
focuses on the fiscal years ending January 31, 2020, January 31, 2020 and January 31,
2020. (“fiscal 2020”). Net sales of $519.9 billion accounted for the bulk of our overall
revenues in fiscal 2020, which totaled $524.0 billion, according to the company.
OUR COMPANY’S PROGRESS
In 1945, Sam M. Walton launched a franchise Ben Franklin variety shop in Newport,
Arkansas, despite the fact that Walmart was formed in Delaware just a few years later
in October of the same year. It was his brother, James L. Walton, who founded a shop in
the town of Versailles a few years later. Variety shops were the only focus of our
forefathers’ company until 1962. The first Wal-Mart Discount City debuted in Rogers,
Arkansas, in that year. Our first Sam’s Club debuted in 1983, and our first supercenter
opened in 1988. When we established our first Walmart Neighborhood Market in 1998,
it was the first of many. When we formed a joint venture in Mexico in 1991, it was our
first foray into international business. This expansion has continued since then, with
our Walmart International section now doing business in 26 countries as of the end of
2020.
More than 75% of Americans will have access to Next Day Delivery, Delivery
Unlimited will be available from 1,600 U.S. locations, and Same Day Pickup will be
extended to 3,200 sites by the end of fiscal 2020. Many of our omni-channel solutions,
including grocery pick-up and/or delivery in almost a dozen countries outside the
United States, have resulted from our e Commerce initiatives and innovation. Over the
last several years, we’ve added over 6,100 grocery pick-up and delivery sites
throughout the world. Our omni-channel capabilities, shops, services, e Commerce
sites, supply chain, and more than 2.2 million colleagues are expanding our ecosystem
so that we may better serve consumers. By working together, we think this combination
will result in customer relationships in which Walmart is seen as the major destination
of choice by consumers.
SUPPLY CHAIN AND SUPPLIERS
As a retailer and warehouse club operator, we employ a worldwide supply chain that
comprises more than 100,000 suppliers from across the globe, including in the United
States, from whom we buy the items we offer in our stores, clubs, and online. As a rule
of thumb, we prefer to buy fresh items from manufacturers who are close to the shops
and clubs where they will be sold. Multiple of our suppliers’ yearly sales may constitute
a major portion of our purchases, and the amount of goods we buy from many suppliers
enables us to get advantageous pricing from them. There are standards of behaviour,
including requirements that our suppliers comply with local labour laws as well as other
relevant regulations. A large part of our ability to meet our customers’ needs and
expectations is determined by our ability to procure the products we need from
suppliers, receive those products on time through our supply chain, and distribute those
products to our stores and clubs, which in turn affects the attractiveness of our
merchandise assortment.
Employees
According to Walmart Inc. and its subsidiaries, we will have more than 2.2 million
associates throughout the globe as of fiscal 2020, including 1.5 million in the United
States and 0.7 million elsewhere. When it comes to part-time staffing, the company isn’t
any different from other stores. We feel we have a strong working connection with our
coworkers. There are a lot of people that leave Walmart each year because of the
company’s emphasis on improving pay and offering better tools, technology, and
training to employees. Additional benefits for qualifying full-time and part-time
employees in the United States, including maternity and paternity leave, are available
to all full-time associates. In addition, we provide a $5,000 adoption incentive for
qualifying employees. As an additional benefit, we give qualified colleagues the
opportunity to obtain a college degree or certificate for the equivalent of $1 every day
via “Live Better U.” For employees working outside the United States, we provide a
wide range of perks that are tailored to local customs and regulations.
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