People long for an American economy in a world that no longer exists, where Main Streets flourished with mom and pop shops, and a chocolate shake cost 50 cents. That is no longer what the world looks like. That economy is dead or dying, and this new world is less predictable. It moves two quickly sometimes for us to keep up, workers have less job security and Main Street is no longer the center of American commerce, but Wal-Mart does its part to help America.
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Saving people money to help them live better was the goal that Sam Walton envisioned when he opened the doors to the first Wal-Mart more than 40 years ago. Wal-Mart’s “good concept” involved huge stores offering customers a wide variety of name-brand goods at deep discounts that were part of an “everyday low prices” strategy. Today, there are 629 stores offering a pleasant and convenient shopping experience across the United States (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ).
In 1996 Wal-Mart launch their website Walmart. om, which deemed as a failure for several reason such as lack of product selection and difficulty of use. In 2002 Wal-Mart spent $100 million on another website; offering order status and tracking, a help desk, a clear return policy and mechanisms, and information on special sales and liquidations. The Broad vision technology being used provides website personalization such as store locators, maps, log-in profiles, and a purchase history. The site offers an online agency that allows customers to make travel reservations, purchase airline tickets, etc.
Integration of both online ; offline business. eg. the site also offers a photo center (Wal-Mart Store, Inc. ). Walmart. com offers approximately 1,000. 000 products that could be found in any of 24 departments such as gardening and electronics. It is growing its business through online sales by selling other companies products on its website. They rely on a large network of suppliers to provide the merchandise their customers want and expect. In 1999, they created a formal supplier diversity program designed to expand their base of minority- and women-owned suppliers.
Currently, Wal-Mart does business with more than 2,5000 Minority-and-Women Owed Business Enterprises (MWBE). The program has grown from an initial $2 million in 1999 to nearly $9. 2 billion spent in 2009 (Wal-Mart Plays Catch Up). Since their first ventured in cyberspace 15 years ago, Wal-Mart trails well behind Amazon. com and EBay. Walmart. com still doesn’t excel at features that are commonplace on other major e-commerce sites, such as personalization and recommendations.
The company doesn’t disclose its online sales, but analysts say Walmart. om does about $6 billion a year in business, less than 2 percent of total sales and well below Amazon. com’s $34 billion in 2010 retail revenue (Business Week). While analysts are pleased to see Wal-Mart taking the Web more seriously, new concepts take a while to germinate at a company wit $420 billion in annual sales. Even updating Wal-Mart supply-chain and transaction systems to work with Web 2. 0 programs wont be easy. Wal-Mart has very sophisticated technology, but those systems did not anticipate a Facebook-powered world (Business Week).
