Wal-mart

Wal-Mart Corporation is the largest retailer and the biggest employer in the world. The company has a global presence in 15 countries (Walmartstores, 2011). In the United States the company is facing challenges trying to open new stores because of the perception by the small and medium businesses that Wal-Mart cannibalizes their business because other firms cannot compete in terms of price and variety. Governmental institutions are limiting the permits Wal-Mart gets to open stores in certain regions. A way for Wal-Mart to eliminate this barrier of entry is by utilizing e-commerce. Wal-Mart utilizes e-commerce to attract customers worldwide. The firm has a very attractive websites that has a vast variety of items available for sale at reasonable prices. The website is very well organized in terms of links and images. The left hand side of the e-store has a list of categories of consumer items for sale. The check-out function of the website is very easy to use. Wal-Mart can be benefit a lot from a more aggressive e-commerce strategy. The global market for online sales is huge. In 2010 e-commerce sales were $153 billion (Plunkett Research, 2011). Wal-Mart should look to increase its market share of this multi-billion dollar marketplace. The beauty of e-commerce is that it has the potential to reach a hundred percent of the global population of 6. 9 billion. Wal-Mart has to look for ways to increase the traffic of its website. Simple solutions such as offering a discount coupon with every Wal-Mart receipt redeemable at its online stores can help increase the revenue of the store. The firm should advertize the site in TV commercials, radio, and in the press. An untapped market that could help the company increase its ecommerce sales is cellular video advertizing. The assistance of G4 networks is enabling people to use the internet more through smart phones such s the I-phone. The company should develop applications for smartphones that enable people to shop online using their smartphones. The function of e-commerce can vastly improve the capabilities of Wal-Mart to reach new customers. Wal-Mart can implement aggressive pricing strategies through its online function due to the fact that the firm has lower operating cost in its online store than the cost associated with running its network of 8, 986 stores worldwide (Walmartstores, 2011). The goal of the company should be to increase its global presence worldwide. Wal-Mart should aggressively market its website in countries where the firm does not have a physical presence. It is much cheaper to penetrate a location online than to invest millions of dollars to open a new store. A way for the company to reach more customers is through email advertising. The firm could provide e-coupons at popular websites such as Yahoo. com to attract traffic to the website. The use of e-commerce applications can provide Wal-Mart with a competitive advantage. As the largest retailer in the world Wal-Mart can ensure it continues to be the best in its industry by expanding its e-commerce operations. References Plunkett Research (2011). E-commerce and Internet Business Overview. Retrieved March 17, 2011 from Plunkett Research database. Walmartstores. com (2011). About Us. Retrieved March 17, 2011 fromhttp://walmartstores. com/AboutUs/