Walmart : Key Insights and Practical Lessons from the World's Largest Retailer

by Roberts, Bryan; Berg, Natalie

• ISBN13: 9780749462734
• ISBN10: 0749462736
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-05-28
• Publisher: Kogan Page Ltd

Summary

Walmart is the biggest retailer on earth with market leadership in all key markets and rapid expansion into emerging markets. From its humble beginning in Arkansas, it has become a global retailing phenomenon. For retailers, Walmart is a tough competitor as well as a source of best practice in a number of retail disciplines such as procurement, logistics, systems and store format innovation. For suppliers for whom Walmart routinely accounts for between 10 and 40% of total sales every move that Walmart makes has profound ramifications for their financial performance and how they do business. Walmartpresents an objective analysis of this market leading retailer.Investigating what the retailer gets right, as well as what it gets wrong, it provides a comprehensive insight into the many functions which contribute to its operations. The book will help retailers learn from best practice, rivals to better compete against Walmart and vendors to better service one of their most important customers.

Author Biography

Natalie Berg has spent years working alongside major retailers and vendors as they seek to better compete with, or partner with, Walmart. A regular retail commentator for UK and global media, her main expertise lies in areas such as private label, merchandising, pricing and shopper-centricity. Natalie is Global Research Director at Planet Retail. Bryan Roberts has spent over ten years as a Walmart analyst and has gained a great understanding of Walmart's strategies, objectives and achievements. An expert in the retail research and insights and a frequent commentator on retail issues for the global media, Bryan also lectures in retail management as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Surrey. Bryan is Director of Retail Insights at Kantar Retail.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. viii
Is Walmart the best-positioned retailer on the globe?	p. 1
Rise of consumerism	p. 4
Arrival of the boom times	p. 6
House of (Walmart) brands	p. 12
Shifting away from national brands	p. 16
Great values	p. 22
The globalization of private label	p. 26
The brands behind the private labels	p. 32
Don't aggravate the customer	p. 39
I can't believe it's not on shelves	p. 39
We didn't add back 3,000… no it was more like 9,000	p. 40
SKU rationalization: far from perfection but a vital process	p. 41
Doing more with less	p. 43
Outsmarting the elephant	p. 44
It's an EDLP world	p. 49
The consumer advocate and king of deflation	p. 49
Recession lesson #1: never take your eye off the customer	p. 52
The path to efficiency	p. 54
How Walmart broke the supermarket pricing model	p. 56
Too concerned with trading down over trading out	p. 58
No need for weapons of mass distraction	p. 59
Preço Baixo Todo Dia: is it an EDLP world?	p. 60
EDLP doesn't exist without EDLC	p. 61
Kakaku Yasuku - EDLP implementation isn't always seamless	p. 62
Walmart versus inflation	p. 66
Walmart and its suppliers	p. 72
Walmart and its suppliers: the evolution of collaboration	p. 72
Canoeing with P&G	p. 73
Dinner with General Electric	p. 74
Collaboration takes hold	p. 75
Is collaboration on the wane?	p. 76
'Tough but fair negotiations'	p. 78
The dependence of US suppliers on Walmart	p. 80
Pharmaceuticals and alcohol have a convoluted route to the shopper	p. 81
Tobacco & confectionery - the McLane clause	p. 81
Lack of disclosure from private and international businesses	p. 82
Reliance on Walmart as high as 55 per cent	p. 82
P&G leading the way	p. 89
The power is now with Walmart	p. 92
Walmart's shopper-centricity driving customer-centricity from suppliers	p. 94
Is Walmart lacking insight?	p. 95
As Walmart evolves, suppliers must follow suit	p. 96
Structural alignment is key	p. 97
Assortment editing and the impact on suppliers	p. 98
Vendors and sustainability	p. 100
Removing the margin-takers	p. 105
The evolution of global sourcing at Walmart	p. 108
New global sourcing strategy unveiled in 2010	p. 110
Does global buying really exist?	p. 111
Grocery is still a national business	p. 112
Walmart's quest for leverage	p. 113
Global Brands Imports gaining traction	p. 115
GMCs yielding results	p. 116
Still leading in logistics	p. 121
The scale of Walmart's logistics system	p. 122
In-house supply chain development	p. 123
Food for thought	p. 126
Supplier collaboration	p. 129
Globalizing supply chain excellence	p. 129
Globalizing one country at a time	p. 130
Greening the supply chain	p. 132
Implications for suppliers	p. 135
The surest way to predict the future is to invent it	p. 137
Technology takes hold in the 1970s	p. 139
The 1980s: technology acceleration in-store	p. 140
Opening the inner sanctum: Walmart's use of third-party IT suppliers	p. 145
Data warehousing: helping Walmart drink from a hosepipe of information	p. 147
Retail Link: a new era for Walmart and its suppliers	p. 148
The false dawn of RFTD	p. 149
The globalization of technology in Walmart	p. 152
Technology and private label development	p. 152
Price optimization	p. 153
Bean counting and number-crunching	p. 154
In-store technology	p. 154
'Our computer really does give us the power of competitive advantage'	p. 156
Facing up to a multi-channel future	p. 159
From Little Rock to Big Apple	p. 159
The Supercenter and Walmart's rise to grocery domination	p. 160
The final frontier: getting bigger by going small	p. 165
The icing on the cake	p. 167
The British are coming	p. 168
Grandma, the Manhattanite and fraternity boys	p. 171
The kings of convenience: US drugstores	p. 174
Living off Walmart's crumbs	p. 175
Digital evolution	p. 177
Democratization of technology	p. 177
Amazon - 'the Walmart of our era'	p. 181
Going global.com	p. 182
Going global: Walmart's international retail leadership	p. 190
Walmart International's market entry strategies	p. 191
By the numbers	p. 196
Walmart International in context	p. 198
Walmart International performance	p. 199
The scope and scale of Walmart International	p. 200
Channel strategy	p. 200
Small-box development	p. 203
Walmart International: the good, the bad and the ugly	p. 207
Where next?	p. 209
Tomorrow's Walmart	p. 215
Appendix	p. 217
Further reading	p. 224
Index	p. 225
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