Wal Mart Stores Inc Comprehensive Analysis Research Paper

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1. Background

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc, hereby referred to as Walmart, is a public traded multinational retail corporation of discount departmental, eCommerce stores and warehouse stores headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, and operating in 27 countries across the globe. Over the decades, Walmart has evolved into a global powerhouse in the retail industry. A comparison of Walmart’s revenue against Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 185 countries by McGee ( 2020) ranks Walmart’s revenue on 25th, demonstrating the dominance of Walmart in the global economy.

The fortune magazine Fortune 500 Index has ranked Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the largest retail company in the United States, the top two since 2000, and the top one for eight years in a row since 2012, based on the company’s total sales. Since its 1972 NYSE listing, the Walmart Stock has experienced remarkable milestones. For the period ended July 31st, 2020, Walmart recorded total revenues of $272 billion and consolidated net income amounting to $10.5 billion. Walmart declared $2.16 dividends per common share, an increase from $2.12 in 2019. Walmart's total assets amount to $237 billion. An analysis of the cumulative total shareholder return on Walmart's common stock reveals an increasing return for the last five years since 2015 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Comparison of 5 Year Cumulative Total return on Walmart’s Common Stock

Walmart Evolution

Walmart was established in 1962 and incorporated in 1969 by Sam Walton. The retail giant operates 11,496 stores and clubs across 27 countries. Walmart ventured into the international market in 1991 by establishing in Mexico, which accounts for the largest international market accounting for 42% of the consolidated sales revenue reported in FY 2019/2020 (Figure 2).

Walmart pursued globalization aggressively; hence its operations span across wholesale, retail, and eCommerce websites operates across all the states in the U.S., Central America, Canada, Africa, Argentina, Chile, Japan, India, China, United Kingdom, and Mexico. Walmart International, Walmart U.S., and Sam's Club are the three reportable segments under which Walmart operates.

Walmart U.S segment entails mass merchandising within the U.S., the Walmart International segment entails operations outside the U.S., with both segments consisting of e-commerce and omnichannel initiatives. The Sam’s Club segment consists of the samsclub.com, the warehouse membership clubs, and omnichannel initiatives. In 2000 Walmart ventured in eCommerce under walmart.com and samsclub.com. Platforms to enable online shopping experience for the customers. Subsequently, the retailer has aggressively pursued other initiatives such as the Site to Store service in 2007, incubation for innovators since 2016, acquisition of Flipkart" in 2019, and NextDay Delivery, Delivery Unlimited, and Same Day Pickup in 2020.

2. Walmart’s Business Strategy

Walmart pursues strong and efficient growth to maintain a competitive position in the retail industry. The retail giant undertakes strategic investments that entail sales-rise with eCommerce sales platforms, increasing the comparable store and club sales, and expanding the omnichannel initiatives. The business model is premised on the retailing of vast merchandise at low prices, with its customers citing the low prices as the fundamental reason for shopping at Walmart (Barbaro, 2007).

Walmart business strategy is guided by four fundamental principles;

· Enhance shopping convenience for busy households

· Sharpening business culture and digitize operations

· Operate responsibly

· Cultivate customer trust as Walmart’s competitive advantage

Innovation and expansion of the ecosystem are at the core of Walmart’s business strategy. The company seeks to respond to global health pandemic by maximizing the safety of products and facilities. Walmart has invested in enhancing sanitation, expanding the online shopping, and no-contact pickup and delivery services. In the U.S., Walmart expanded the omnichannel platforms, with 3200 locations offering grocery pickup, and 1600 locations offering grocery delivery.  A seamless platform such as Flipkart and PhonePe supports same-day delivery in India.

Walmart’s sales have increased over the years. However, natural pandemics and economic crisis such as the COVID -19 pandemic in 2020 and the global recession of 2007/2008 have contributed to the decline of Walmart’s sales (see figure below)

3. Stakeholder Evaluation

Stakeholders include a group of people or institutions that affect or are affected by business activity. Essentially stakeholder relationship management is pivotal in achieving a company’s objectives. Developing a meaningful relationship with stakeholders yields a license to operate, reduces the cost of constraints, minimizes the risk of operations, enhances business opportunities, which ultimately results to value addition. Also, stakeholder relationship management assures the stakeholders that the company that company seeks to maximize every of the stakeholder groups' interests (Jeffery, 2009). Walmart stakeholders can be categorized into two; internal stakeholders who include the shareholders, the board of directors, the management and employees, and external stakeholders who include the competitors, industry, vendors, customers, government agencies, and communities

3.1. Internal Stakeholders

The internal stakeholder includes the groups, people, or organizations that directly affect Walmart’s business operations.

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3.1.1. Shareholders

Walmart shareholding includes 50.56% individual shareholders, and 29.86% owned by institutional investors (14.02% mutual fund holders and 15.84% other institutional investors). Walton Enterprises LLC and the Walton Family hold the highest shareholding of 35.3% and 14.8%, respectively. The shareholders strategically influence Walmart's strategy implementation, mainly done through the annual shareholder meetings, where the shareholders resolve strategic issues. The shareholders vote on issues such as the election of directors, compensation of executive officers, ratification of the appointment of independent accountants, amendment of the shareholding structure, among other core business strategies. In 2020, Walmart adopted the first virtual shareholder meeting, with the shareholders voting electronically via mail, online, phone prior, or during the meeting.

3.1.2. Board of Directors

The Board of Directors (BOD) entails 27% female, 53 years nominee median age, and 6.6 years nominee median tenure. The BOD entails 11 nominees, with ten non-management nominees and seven independent nominees. The shareholders elect Walmart Board of Directors through the voting procedure of one share, one vote. Walmart Board leadership structure entails a Non-Executive Chairman, Lead Independent Director, and the President and CEO. The BOD plays a strategic oversight role over…

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…(A-1+ for commercial paper and A.A. for long term debt), and Fitch Ratings (F1+ for commercial paper and A.A. for long term debt). Such strong ratings cultivate a favorable rate in the capital markets, enabling Walmart to refinance its debts as they mature. Walmart records an increasing Return on Assets (ROA), increasing to 7.7% in FY 2019/2020 compared to 6% in FY 2018/2019. Walmart recorded an increase in sales in the FY 2019/2020 compared to the FY 2018/2019, demonstrating the company’s increasing dominance in the retail market.

4.2. Weakness

Walmart adopts a cost leadership generic strategy with a relatively higher cost of sales, which contributes to thin gross profit margins (Gheibi, 2020). In contrast, Walmart adopts the strategy to attract more customers, which reduces the profit margins. The generic cost leadership strategy is an easily copied business model implying fewer competition differentiators. Moreover, the company loses out the market of quality-seeking buyers with lesser sensitivity to prices, increasing Walmart’s vulnerability to competition from high-end specialty retailers. Except for a strong brand image and large organizational size, Walmart fails to use its competitive differentiation to enhance its sustainability. Walmart's comparatively passiveness in optimizing technology and market disruptions, particularly the e-commerce trends, implies a loss of market to other innovative competitors such as Amazon. Such weaknesses constraints Walmart’s ability to withstand inherent threats and risks (Gheibi, 2020).

4.3. Opportunities

Walmart’s leading position in the retail market presents massive opportunities. The company pursues venturing and expansion, particularly in the developing countries experiencing a boom in consumption expenditures. Walmart's competitive advantage in offering competitively low prices would attract customers in developing countries. Being the largest private employer globally with employees in the excesses of 2.3 million, adopting favorable human resource policies would ensure Walmart attracts and retains high-quality workers. Health-conscious and environmental footprint conscious consumers are on the rise, presenting opportunities for Walmart to capitalize on best practices such as organic products and green practices as a strategy to retain and attract new customers.

Technology continues to evolve rapidly, and customers are increasingly embracing digital platforms and digital platforms growing in scope and complexity, presenting an opportunity for rating e-commerce. Walmart accounts for a leader in the use of technology. Investing in blockchain technology to control and predict inventory levels, predict demand, manage logistics, establish high-efficiency transportation routes, and manage customer relationships presents opportunities for cutting transaction costs and improving customer experience. Moreover, increasing trade liberalization presents opportunities for strategic alliances in foreign countries beyond the U.S., which is pivotal for competitive positioning.

4.4. Threats

Global pandemics, including the COVID-19, natural disasters, catastrophic events, climate change, unfavorable pollical environments, present a risk to the operations of Walmart. Adoption of new tax regimes, the introduction of new tariffs and labor policies, trade restrictions, changes in government policies, and initiatives account as core regulatory and legislative reforms that present a threat to Walmart operations. The uncertainty of the general economic environment, domestically, and internationally presents risks to the business operations….....

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