Walmart's Foreign Expansion
Walmart’s Foreign Expansion
Walmart has a merchandising strategy of everyday low prices and highly efficient operations, logistics, and information systems. This helps keep Walmart at a minimum inventory level and avoids overstocking and understocking. With major success in the United States, in the 90s it began to expand internationally, Mexico being the first. At first, Mexico did not do so well, since the consumers live a different life and have different buying patterns. Fresh produce was of the upmost importance, and that is something that Walmart would have never known if they had not hired people that were familiar with the country to manage their stores. It also believed that Mexico would be introduced to a different shopping culture, with the help of the American culture that Walmart will be bringing in. Now it is Walmarts most successful foreign venture. With the success in Mexico, it decided to take their business in developed counties like Germany and South Korea. Here, Walmart did not have much success here. Local rivalries knew exactly how to cater to their customers, which made it difficult for Walmart to compete with already established local shopping markets. In addition, the everyday low price strategy that Walmart was all about did not seem to attract these developed countries like they did in the United States and Mexico. They appreciated higher quality merchandise and liked paying for what they got. They did not have a discount hunting mindset like American and Mexican consumers had. In the end, after many years, it decided to pull out of Germany and South Korea. They decided to seek other developed countries that would find their everyday low pricing strategy appealing. Thus, they expanded in China, slowly but surely. China consumers were discovered to be bargain hunters but also noticed that they had to change a bit to fit the Chinese culture. They are big on having their food fresh, to the point that their meat has to be cut right in front
Walmart has a merchandising strategy of everyday low prices and highly efficient operations, logistics, and information systems. This helps keep Walmart at a minimum inventory level and avoids overstocking and understocking. With major success in the United States, in the 90s it began to expand internationally, Mexico being the first. At first, Mexico did not do so well, since the consumers live a different life and have different buying patterns. Fresh produce was of the upmost importance, and that is something that Walmart would have never known if they had not hired people that were familiar with the country to manage their stores. It also believed that Mexico would be introduced to a different shopping culture, with the help of the American culture that Walmart will be bringing in. Now it is Walmarts most successful foreign venture. With the success in Mexico, it decided to take their business in developed counties like Germany and South Korea. Here, Walmart did not have much success here. Local rivalries knew exactly how to cater to their customers, which made it difficult for Walmart to compete with already established local shopping markets. In addition, the everyday low price strategy that Walmart was all about did not seem to attract these developed countries like they did in the United States and Mexico. They appreciated higher quality merchandise and liked paying for what they got. They did not have a discount hunting mindset like American and Mexican consumers had. In the end, after many years, it decided to pull out of Germany and South Korea. They decided to seek other developed countries that would find their everyday low pricing strategy appealing. Thus, they expanded in China, slowly but surely. China consumers were discovered to be bargain hunters but also noticed that they had to change a bit to fit the Chinese culture. They are big on having their food fresh, to the point that their meat has to be cut right in front