Only Downfall Of Wal Mart Com example essay topic

What is Wal-Mart dong that seems to fit a definition of "successful" e-commerce operations? What cold they do better? How does shopping on-line compare to your experience looking for a similar type of item at a bricks-and-mortar store? How does this site compare to other experiences you " ve had with e-commerce?? When you talk about Wal-Mart the first thing that you have to remember is that they are the largest retailer in the world. Wal-Mart employs more people in the United States than any other company and is second only to the federal government in the number of employees that they have on the payroll.

These are important facts to consider in that due to their tremendous size, Wal-Mart has an enormous effect on the economy and the way that business is conducted. In many instances, if a company wants to continue to do business they have to either follow what Wal-Mart is doing or attempt to compete against Wal-Mart in some other fashion. It is not unreasonable to state that Wal-Mart is the reason why many businesses are in business today. They were forced out by the sheer size of Wal-Mart. So, with this in mind it is interesting to note that Wal-Mart ranks only third on the e-commerce scale behind Dell computers and Amazon. (Sullivan 2004) What is the reason for this?

It's hard to say and point to one specific reason why Wal-Mart doesn't lead this list but maybe looking at the criteria outlined in the background reading will help to answer this question. (Wollan 2003) In the background reading a list of criteria is given that outlines the advantages of e-commerce as it relates to operations management. The companies that are able to capitalize on these are the ones that will be successful. Wal-Mart is able to capitalize and continues to do so as it improves and expands into the e-commerce environment. Some of these advantages are: o Better availability of service Cost reduction in information processing o Better of timeliness of service Better access to customer market so Initial cost of operations less expensive Operating costs of operations less expensive Better purchasing prices from supplier so Improved product development Improved scheduling o Better supplier quality Some of these might not be as clear unless you take the time to understand how Wal-Mart operates. (Wal-Mart, 2005) Wal-Mart treats each of its different divisions as separate companies.

The Wal-Mart Corporation consists of Wal-Mart stores, Sam's Club, Wal-Mart International, and Walmart. com. Each of these entities is a separate company that is not dependent on the other. As such the success of the initial start up of the companies is not based on how well or poorly the corporation is doing. Further in the background readings, Dr. Wollan outlines eight areas that can be linked as critical success factors for the operations of e-commerce. o Supply Chain Managemento Product and Process Design Managemento Purchasing Managemento Forecasting and Scheduling Managemento Inventory Managemento Quality Managemento Human Resource Managemento Reengineering and Consulting Management In my opinion the most important of these factors is the Supply Chain Management. If the customer is not able to get the product when they want it or the product is always sold out, they will go somewhere else. Wal-Mart has taken the role of leader in how suppliers will do business with companies.

In August 2002, Wal-Mart told it's suppliers they would have to start sending and receiving electronic data over the Internet. As a result, more than 98% of Wal-Mart's Electronic Data Information (EDI) exchanges are done over the Internet using AS 2 software. (Zimmerman 2003) This leads me back to my first point in that what Wal-Mart does others will do also. The suppliers began to get their AS 2 infrastructures up and running in anticipation of other retailers that would follow suit. Lowes and Home Depot are now also using the AS 2 software platform to conduct their business as well. Since Wal-Mart made their announcement, the company responsible for the development of the AS 2 software, Is oft Corporation, has seen a 900% increase in their sales and have more than 1,0000 customers.

There is not really a lot of room for improvement when talking about Walmart. com. The site is simple and easy to use. Perhaps the only downfall of Wal-Mart. com is that with the number of brick-and-mortar stores available to a customer why would they want to wait 2 weeks for an order to come in the mail when they go to the store and take it home today. In this case, Wal-Mart may be its own worse enemy One problem that I did have with the site though is that it is not user friendly to employees who shop online and want to use their discount card. This may not seem like a major problem until you remember that Wal-Mart is the second largest employer of people in the United States.

And all those employees are potential shoppers. My wife works at Wal-Mart and so I have an associate discount card. I went online to shop and the website has a page for you to enter your associate ID number and associate card number, but the page is not easy to find. Next after numerous attempts I could not get the database to take the information so I finally had to call the customer service branch for assistance. Finding the products that I was looking for was not difficult and Wal-Mart provides not only a Boolean search box but also some "pretty" tabs labeled with general names such as toys and electronics. But this is not special and is in fact pretty much the norm for companies that do business online.

In other words, the Walmart. com website does not stand out from the crowd. As a matter of fact if you compare the Amazon. com websites to Walmart. com they look very similar. (Amazon 2005) I found the Dell website to be less friendly and almost irritating with the addition of pop-up ads that I had to close. (Dell, 2005)

Bibliography

Amazon (2005) [Company web-site].
Retrieved June 19, 2005 from web Computers, (2005) [Company web-site].
Retrieved June 19, 2005 from web Laurie.
2004, November, 8).
E-Commerce: Promise Fulfilled. Information Week, 1013 (3), 70. Wal-Mart. (2005).
Company web-site]. Retrieved on February 21, 2005, from web M.
L. (2003).
E-commerce operations management. PowerPoint presentation for OPM 500, Module 5. Zimmerman, A. (2003, Nov.