The Corporate Social Responsibility of Walmart

       The Corporate Social Responsibility of Walmart

Wal Mart opened its doors 1962 in Arkansa as a discount department store. This was an expansion of Sam Walton’s “5 and 10” stores that aimed at higher sales profit by keeping sales low (Wal Mart, 2013). It was a local store .

SWOT Analysis

In order to determine how to support the needs of Wal Mart, we conducted a SWOT analysis where we analyzed the companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  The reason for doing this is to evaluate Wal Mart’s financial and operational practices and determine optimal strategies for improvement. We identified internal and external factors that have affected Wal Mart's performance.

Strengths and Oppurtunities

Walmart is the one of the largest retailers in the world. This allows them a significantly strong buying power advantage and gives them influence over the prices of many products.  They provide a wide variety of products in their stores, from groceries to automotive goods to clothing and furniture.  Walmart is able to keep up and restock all of this inventory with their innovative information and logistics systems. The strength of walmart opens the door to many opportunities.  Currently Wal-Mart operates under 69 different banners in 27 countries around the world, with its strongest presence in North America. Wal Mart continues to explore global expansion and is scouting Brazil, Mexico, China and India for potential growth.  Online shopping is gaining in popularity and Wal-mart seeks to cash in on this with promotions such as free or reduce shipping.  This is particularly popular during the holiday season. Walmart has also began to make more store brand items.  Rising acceptance of store brand products prompted this opportunity.  Because these items are in-house, there is a higher profit margin when these products are sold in comparison to the sale of national brands.

Weaknesses and Threats

We will also explore the threats...