Walmart
When we look at the Five Forces model as applied to Walmart, we can determine that the Buyer Power of their customers is high because patrons have many other choices. However, customers expect and demand the lowest prices from Walmart, and they are willing to overlook, but not ignore, other factors like customer service, store location, and atmosphere
Walmart's Suppliers have little power because of the sheer size of Walmart, and because being a Walmart supplier can provide huge sales potential. The suppliers must do what Walmart wants regarding business processes and technical requirements. They will also be pressured for lower prices, which may cause the suppliers to move production to lower priced labor markets.
The threat of substitute products means that customers can go elsewhere for the same or substitute items. There could be some threat here only because of web based stores as they may be able to have lower prices because of low overhead,
Threat of new entrants in the Brick and Mortar Store area is low, because of the costs involved in building stores and the infrastructure to support the business processes. New entrants in the Internet market would be high, because of the low costs involved and the potential to specialize in different areas with especially low prices.
Rivalry between competitors at a store level would be high and could be affected by the breadth of products and quality of customer service or even the cleanliness and appearance of the store. On a company level, Walmart’s Sales are $418 Billion and Target, their closest competitor’s has annual sales of $67 Billion, so while it may seem there is a large rivalry, the size of Walmart limits the threat.
For new entrants to compete with the Supplier:
If we look at the Five Forces Model from a Walmart Supplier’s perspective, we see that the Buyer Power that Walmart exerts is very high, because they will switch suppliers or eliminate the product if the pricing and process
Walmart's Suppliers have little power because of the sheer size of Walmart, and because being a Walmart supplier can provide huge sales potential. The suppliers must do what Walmart wants regarding business processes and technical requirements. They will also be pressured for lower prices, which may cause the suppliers to move production to lower priced labor markets.
The threat of substitute products means that customers can go elsewhere for the same or substitute items. There could be some threat here only because of web based stores as they may be able to have lower prices because of low overhead,
Threat of new entrants in the Brick and Mortar Store area is low, because of the costs involved in building stores and the infrastructure to support the business processes. New entrants in the Internet market would be high, because of the low costs involved and the potential to specialize in different areas with especially low prices.
Rivalry between competitors at a store level would be high and could be affected by the breadth of products and quality of customer service or even the cleanliness and appearance of the store. On a company level, Walmart’s Sales are $418 Billion and Target, their closest competitor’s has annual sales of $67 Billion, so while it may seem there is a large rivalry, the size of Walmart limits the threat.
For new entrants to compete with the Supplier:
If we look at the Five Forces Model from a Walmart Supplier’s perspective, we see that the Buyer Power that Walmart exerts is very high, because they will switch suppliers or eliminate the product if the pricing and process