Essay: Wal-mart SWOT Analysis Sample

Strengths

• Established name brand that is identified with reasonable to cheap pricing and bargain pricing.
• Wal-mart is a store that most individuals when they are on a low budget and still want to buy what they set out to buy – visit.
• Wide network of stores and therefore it is accessible to all types of individuals whether they are of wealthy means or not.
• The organization is able to buy in bulk and gain huge bulk discounts that are not available to other organizations and is able to pass on the discounts and pricing benefits to the customers thus further solidifying its reputation as a bargain store
• The organization deals in all types of goods from clothes to electrical items, from jeweler to garden equipment and therefore caters to a wide range of individuals and needs.

Weaknesses

• In the last few years the organization has faced much litigation from employees accusing it of unfair employment activities – especially from its female workforce that has given the organization a bad reputation as an employer.
• The organization has also earned much negative publicity for its strong arming tactics and squeezing suppliers of profit margins by threatening to take its business elsewhere.
• The goods that are sold by Wal-mart from its Chinese suppliers in the past year have been marred by many different cases of health and safety hazards.
• The Chinese branches of Wal-mart have had difficulties in establishing themselves in the economy.
• The organization has been challenged in court over its strong-arm tactics of trying to suppress the unionization of its American workforce.
• The organization has to allow its Chinese workforce to unionize and the government-backed workers’ federations control the unions.

Opportunities

• The current economic crisis has decreased the disposable income of many individuals and thus has caused many individuals and households to lower their expectations and to shop for bargains, thus Wal-mart stands to gain in such a situation.
• The inflation in the economy is on the decline and the economy is on the brink of deflation thus it may mean that Wal-mart is able to provide its customers with increased bargains.
• Many retail organizations are going out of business due to the reduction in disposable incomes. This can help Wal-mart by increasing its customer base due to the bargains that it can provide its customers.
• Due to the cheap rate that the organization is able to buy its products from suppliers, it is able to provide customers with even bigger bargains to encourage them to shop at Wal-mart.

Threats

• The big name retailers such as M&S are giving having huge sales such as 50% off sales; this is difficult for Wal-mart to compete with, as its profit margins are not that great on each unit.
• The reduction in disposable income of customers and the looming recession and fears of job losses have caused individuals to curtail their shopping and this is a huge threat to Wal-mart, which relies on consumer spending.