Business Analysis - Research Paper Example

According to Bruce (2011), Wal-Mart is given the top ranking in terms of the total sales that are made by the store alone. The retail offers variety of products that comprise of family apparel, electronics, household needs, electronics, fabrics, jewellery, shoes, crafts, health and beauty products and lawn and garden accessories along with pharmacy store, Photo processing centre and Tire and Lube Express (Walmart Stores, 2012). Wal-Mart is operating in four retail divisions that are called as Sam’s Club warehouses, neighborhood markets, Super centres and Wal-Mart stores.

Wal-Mart stores and Super centres are one-stop shopping centres for the families; Sam’s Club in the members only club for warehouse purposes and neighborhood markets offer convenience shopping to the customers for general merchandise, groceries and pharmaceutical companies (Basker, 2007). Currently, Wal-Mart has about 10,185 stores and also location of clubs in almost twenty-seven countries; it is employing more than 2.2 million people who are serving approximately 176 million numbers of customers every year (Walmart Stores, 2012). . Advancements in information technology have helped the store to ensure that inventory level is properly maintained (Freeman, 2006).

Investing in Wal-Mart: A good choice or not? Before making a final decision about investing in Wal-Mart for a mutual fund, it is important to look at the SWOT Analysis of the company. Strengths Wal-Mart has a strong powerful brand name in the market especially in the retail industry. It offers value for money, convenience of shopping from one place and diverse range of products at one place (Bruce, 2011). The growth of the store has been at an exponential rate and it has become a global brand.

Wal-Mart has the strongest logistics system even at the international level; hence, the procurement of Wal-Mart is excellent and it gives it a core competence in using IT for supporting its logistics system. It has talented people and Human Resource department has a focused strategy for the training and development of all the employees working for Wal-Mart; hence, the workforce of the store is competent and loyal (Jenna, 2012). Weaknesses: Since Wal-Mart has become global and it has a huge span of control, so controlling such a huge empire becomes difficult for the management.

The retail store might lack flexibility as compared to its competitors as it is selling products across various sectors such as food, stationary, clothing and etc. Although, the store has become global but it does not have a strong presence worldwide (Elkins, 2005). Opportunities Wal-Mart can merge or form strategic alliances with some well-reputed retailers at a global level that focus on specific markets such as Greater China or Europe region. In the countries, the stores are present as trade in only and have many opportunities for