INTRODUCTION

The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. It is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. Walmart is also the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business.It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America. Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names.[5] The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states and Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price.But operations in India have not started yet. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America and China are highly successful, whereas ventures in Germany and South Korea were unsuccessful. And-year old Mike Duke is the fourth CEO in Walmarts 47-year history and made his debut at the companys 2009 annual meeting. Duke believes Walmart is the largest family in the world."

The Story
Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin and that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas.[6] Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding expectations.[7]However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise

in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors.
[8]

On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store located at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antique mall. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales.[9] In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.

The company was incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. on October 31, 1969. In 1970, it opened its home office and first distribution center in Bentonville, Arkansas. It had 38 stores operating with 1,500 employees and sales of $44.2 million. It began trading stock as a publicly held company on October 1, 1970, and was soon listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The first stock split occurred in May 1971 at a market price of $47.

Finance and governance

For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2011, Wal-Mart reported a net income of $15.4 billion on $422 billion of revenue with a 24.7% gross profit margin). The corporation's international operations accounted for $109.2 billion, or 26.1%, of total sales.[1] It is the world's 18th largest public corporation, according to the Forbes Global 2000 list, and the largest public corporation when ranked by revenue.[101] Wal-Mart is governed by a fifteen-member Board of Directors, which is elected annually by shareholders. Robson Walton, the eldest son of founder Sam Walton, serves as Chairman of the Board. Michael T. Duke serves as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Lee Scott, formerly CEO, serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board. Other members of the board include Ada lvarez, Jim Breyer, M. Michele Burns, James Cash, Roger Corbett, Douglas Daft, David Glass,

Gregory B. Penner, Allen Questrom, Arne M. Sorenson, Jim Walton, Christopher J. Williams, and Linda S. Wolf.[1] Sam Walton died in 1992. After Walton's death, Don Soderquist, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice Chairman, became known as the "Keeper of the Culture

History Timeline

1960s

First discount store in Rogers, Ark. The Walmart story began in 1962, when Sam Walton, our founder opened the companys first discount store inRogers, Ark. 1968 saw the hiring of Walmart Aviationsfirst full-time pilot, who provided help to Sam and Bud Walton, as well as the opening of the first stores outside of Arkansas, in Sikeston, Mo., and Claremore, Okla. The company officially incorporated as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on October 31, 1969.

1970s

Walmart's first distribution center, Bentonville, Ark.

The 1970s marked the beginning of significant growth for the company. The first year of that decade saw the opening of the first Walmart distribution center, as well as the Walmart Home Office, in Bentonville. Ark. At that point, Walmart employed 1,500 associates (employees) working in 38 stores, with sales of $44.2 million. Walmart also began selling shares over the counter as a publicly-held company in 1970.

1980s

First Sam's Club, Midwest City, Okla.

1980
Growth continued into 1980, with Walmart stock splitting 100 percent for the fourth time with a market price of $50. That year also saw the opening of the largest distribution center to date in Palestine, Texas. In 1981, Walmart entered Georgia and South Carolina, and made its second acquisition with 92 Kuhns Big K stores. The company entered Florida and Nebraska in 1982, following Junes fifth 100 percent stock split at a market price of $49.875.

1983
Forbes magazine ranked Walmart No. 1 among general retailers for the eighth year straight in 1983, the year that the first Sams Club opened in Midwest City, Okla. The same year, Walmart opened stores in Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico and North Carolina, implemented the characteristic People Greeters in all locations, and opened the first 1-hour photo lab in Tulsa, Okla. Walmart also acquired U.S. Woolco Stores in 1983.

1984
1984 saw Sam Walton doing the hula at high noon on Wall Street, making good on a promise to associates after the company achieved a pre-tax profit of 8 percent for the previous fiscal year. 1984 was also the year that David Glass was named company president, and Walmart entered Virginia.

1985
At mid-decade, Walmart employed 104,000 associates in 882 stores with sales of $8.4 billion. Stock split 100 percent in September, with a market price of $49.75. That year, the company entered Wisconsin and Colorado and also acquired Grand Central Shoes. The next year, 1986, Walmart entered Minnesota.

1987
Walmart marked its 25th anniversary in 1987, with 1,198 stores, sales of $15.9 billion and 200,000 associates. The stock split 100 percent again in June, with a market price of $66.625. The company also completed the Walmart Satellite Network, the largest private satellite communication system in the United States, linking all operating units of the company and the Home Office with two-way voice, data, and one-way video communication.

1988
By 1988, 99 percent of Walmart stores had bar-code scanning capabilities, the first Supercenteropened in Washington, Mo., and the company acquired Supersaver units. David Glass was named chief executive officer of Walmart. Walmart closed out the 1980s with the addition of operations inMichigan , West Virginia, and Wyoming, for a total of 29 states.

1990s Walmart Visitors' Center, Bentonville, Ark

.1990
Walmart became the nations No. 1 retailer in 1990, entering

into California, Nevada, North

Dakota,Pennsylvania, South

Dakota,

and Utah and

acquiring the McLane Company of Temple, Texas. The company also opened the Walmart Visitor Center on Bentonvilles town square, on the site of Sam Waltons original Waltons 5-10 store. Walmart stock split 100 percent for the ninth time in 1990 as well, at a market price of $62.50.

1991
Branching out further in 1991, Walmart stepped into the international market with the opening of a retail unit inMexico City. On the domestic front, the company entered into several states in the Northeast and South Atlantic regions, including Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York, and acquired Western Merchandisers, Inc. of Amarillo,Texas. Walmart also introduced the Sams American Choice brand products in 1991.

President George H. W. Bush presents Medal of Freedom to Sam Walton.

1992
On April 5, 1992, Sam Walton passed away at the age of 74. Just weeks before, President George H.W. Bush presented him with the Medal of Freedom, the nations highest civilian honor, during a ceremony at Walmart headquarters. Following Sams passing, his son S. Robson Walton was named chairman of the board. With the additions of Idaho, Montana and Oregon, Walmart operated in 45 states in the United States in 1992, and expanded into Puerto Rico.

1993
Walmarts international business formed its own division the following year, with Bobby Martin serving as president. 1993 also saw the tenth 100 percent stock split at a market value of $63.625; the first billion-dollar sales week in December; the acquisition of 91 Pace Warehouse Clubs; and Walmarts entry into Alaska, Hawaii, Rhode Islandand Washington, bringing the companys total to 49 states. The 50th would be added two years later.

1994
In 1994, a prototype Walmart store, designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible, opened in Lawrence, Kan. The company acquired 122 Woolco stores in Canada, and opened three value clubs in Hong Kong. As of that year, Walmart International operated 123 stores in Canada and 86 in Mexico. Also in 1994, the Code Adam missing child program was implemented in all stores, being named for Adam Walsh.

Walmart Todo Dia in Brazil

1995
1995 saw the passing of Sam Waltons brother, James Lawrence Bud Walton, Walmarts co-founder. The company entered its 50th state, Vermont, and built three units in Argentina and five in Brazil. As of that year, Walmart Stores Inc. operated 1,995 stores, 239 Supercenters, 433 Sams Clubs and 276 international stores with sales of $93.6 billion and 675,000 associates.

1996
In 1996, Walmart entered China through a joint-venture agreement. Also in 1996, the Missing Children's Network was implemented in all stores to feature missing children by displaying their information on bulletin boards.

1997
By the following year, Walmart became the largest private employer in the United States with 680,000 associates, plus an additional 115,000 international associates. 1997 was also Walmarts first $100 billion sales year, with sales totaling $105 billion, and the company served 90 million customers per week worldwide. Walmart also replaced Woolworth on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and the company introduced OneSource nutrition centers.

1998
Walmart entered into two more countries in 1998, with the acquisition of 21 Wertkauf units in Germany and a joint-venture agreement to operate in Korea. The company exceeded $100 million in annual charitable contributions that year, with donations totaling $102 million. Walmart also introduced the Neighborhood Market concept with three stores in Arkansas.

Late 1990s

In the last year of the 1990s, Walmart became the largest private employer in the world, with 1,140,000 total associates. The stock split 100 percent for the 11th time, with a market price of $89.75. The 1999 Cone/Roper Report, an annual national survey on philanthropy and corporate citizenship, ranked Walmart the No. 1 Corporate Citizen in America. The company acquired 71 Interspar units in Germany and acquired the ASDA Group plc in the United Kingdom.

2000s

H. Lee Scott Jr., third CEO of Walmart Stores Inc.

2000
Walmart entered the new millennium with the appointment of H. Lee Scott Jr. as the third CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in 2000. That year, Fortune magazine ranked the company fifth in its "Global Most Admired All-Stars" list and named Walmart the third most admired company in America. The 2000 Cone/Roper Report once again ranked Walmart as the No. 1 Corporate Citizen in America. Also in 2000 Walmart started walmart.com to enter the expanding online market to increase its reach and the profits thereafter.

2002

Hispanic Business magazine ranked Walmart one of the "Top 25 Diversity Recruitment Programs" in 2001 for its aggressive program to hire and promote Latinos. In 2002, Walmart received the 2002 Ron Brown Award, the highest Presidential Award recognizing outstanding achievement in employee relations and community initiatives.

2003-2004
Fortune magazine also placed Walmart in the top spot on its Most Admired Companies list two years in a row, in 2003 and 2004. In 2004, Walmart was also presented the "Corporate Patriotism Award," which is presented to a company that exhibits exceptional dedication to supporting of U.S. service members and their families.

2005
Walmart marked a significant turning point in 2005 with a new commitment to bring environmental sustainability into its business, under the leadership of CEO Lee Scott. The sustainability commitment developed after Walmart led the corporate drive to assist in U.S. hurricane relief effortswith $18 million in cash donations. That same year, in McKinney, Texas, and Aurora, Colo., Walmart created experimental stores that save energy, conserve natural resources, and reduce pollution. The company also launched the Acres for America program, which conserves critical wildlife habitats for future generations. As of 2005, Walmart employed more than 1.6 million associates in more than 6,200 facilities around the world including 3,800 U.S. stores and 3,800 international units with $312.4 billion in sales for the year. The company served more than 138 million weekly customers in the United States,Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, Honduras, Japan,Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom. View the current unit count for each country.

Seiyu Store in Japan

2006
By 2006, the number of weekly customers grew to more than 176 million around the world, with 6,779 locations. Walmart had record net sales of $345 billion. The company increased its ownership stake in Seiyu inJapan, to 53.3 percent, and increased its ownership of CARHCO to 51 percent, renaming the company Walmart Central America. Through the Walmart Foundation, charitable partnersand donations from customers and associates, Walmart contributed more than $415 million in cash and in-kind merchandise to 100,000 organizations worldwide. Walmart also launched a new $4 generic prescription drug program to help customers in its U.S. pharmacies save money on health care.

2007
In February 2007 Walmart helped launch Better Health Care Together, a unique partnership of organizations dedicated to a set of four common sense principles for achieving a new American health care system by 2012. Later in the year, Walmart expanded its successful $4 generic program, which as of 2007 had saved customers more than $396 million on prescription drug costs. Walmart International reached significant milestones as well. In August, Walmart and Bharti Enterprises announced an agreement to establish Bharti Walmart Private Limited, a joint venture for wholesale cash-and-carry and back-end supply chain management operations in India.

The 3,000th international store, a Supercenter in Sao Paulo, Brazil, opened in November 2007. In December, Walmart successfully completed a tender offer to acquire all issued and outstanding shares of Seiyu in Japan, which raised Walmarts ownership to 95.1 percent.

2008
On April 10, 2008, Sam's Club celebrated its 25th anniversary. In 2008, Sam's Club operated more than 590 locations nationwide and more than 100 locations internationally.

2009
Mike Duke succeeded Lee Scott as president and chief executive officer, effective February 1, 2009. Duke was also elected to the companys board of directors. Scott continues serving as chairman of the executive committee of the board. The board also approved the promotion of Eduardo Castro-Wright to vice chairman of Walmart.

WALMART STORES

Walmart Discount Stores

Our founder, Sam Walton, opened his first Walmart discount store in 1962. Today, there are 629 stores offering a pleasant and convenient shopping experience across the United States. The size of an average store is 108,000 square feet. Each store employs about 225 associates. Our stores feature wide, clean, brightly-lit aisles and shelves stocked with a variety of quality, value-priced general merchandise, including:

Family apparel Healthy and beauty aids Electronics Toys Lawn and garden items Jewelry Automotive products Home furnishings Hardware

Sporting goods Pet supplies Housewares

Walmart Supercenters
Our Supercenters were developed in 1988 to meet the growing demand for convenient, one-stop family shopping featuring our famous Every Day Low Prices. We save you time and money by combining a full grocery and our general merchandise under one roof. There are 3,029 Supercenters nationwide, and most are open 24 hours. Supercenters average 185,000 square feet and employ about 350 or more associates. Supercenter groceries feature:

Bakery goods Meat and dairy products Fresh produce Dry goods and staples Beverages Deli foods Frozen foods Canned and packaged goods Condiments and spices Household supplies

Most Supercenters also have many specialty shops such as:

Vision center Tire & Lube Express Brand-name restaurants Portrait one-hour photo center studio and

Pharmacy Health clinic Employment Agency Hair salon Bank

Walmart Neighborhood Markets

Walmart Neighborhood Markets offer a quick and convenient shopping experience for customers who need groceries, pharmaceuticals, and general merchandise all at our famous Every Day Low Prices. First opened in 1998, there are now 168 Walmart Neighborhood Markets, each employing about 95 associates. A typical store is about 42,000 square feet. Walmart Neighborhood Markets feature a wide variety of products, including:

Fresh produce Meat and Dairy products Frozen foods Dry goods and staples Health and beauty aids Stationery and paper goods Drive-through pharmacy Deli foods

Bakery items Canned and packaged goods Condiments and spices Pet supplies Household supplies One-hour photo center

Walmart Express Stores

The first two Walmart Express test stores opened in June 2011 in Northwest Arkansas. Walmart every convenient areas not have Express day in access has a for where access to been smaller fill-in created format and to stock-up shoppers larger offer store low that shopping prices provides trips. may stores.

The stores give Walmart flexibility in serving customers, especially in rural and urban

The Walmart Express test stores average 15,000-square-feet and offer groceries and general merchandise, including an assortment of fresh produce, dairy and meat, dry goods, consumables, health and beauty aids, over-the-counter medicines and more. Many have pharmacies as well.

Walmart.com
Founded in 2000, Walmart.com brings the convenience, great merchandise selection, friendly service and Every Day Low Prices of your neighborhood Walmart to the Internet.Walmart.com features more than 1,000,000 products, plus easy-to-use music downloads and digital one-hour photo services. And were adding more great products every day.During the holidays, Walmart.com features many special offers available only online. Its also a convenient place to find out about our exciting in-store holiday specials.With our innovative Site to Store program, you can purchase items at Walmart.com and then have them shipped free to your local store for pickup.

Walmarts e-commerce
Wal-Mart E-business
In today's major organizations, e-business is imperative for their continuous growth. There are few private or public companies that is not on the World Wide Web. Wal-Mart is a company that banks on e-business. Being part web-based, helps to reach the consumers they usually will not receive business from. E-business can have a major influence and

impact

on

all

four

functions

of

management.

Leading is a major part of e-business. One must establish a direction before one goes down that path. Wal-Mart decided to go in the direction of an online store. This enables customers that prefer online shopping to purchase what they need from the store online. This has been a very successful element in Wal-Mart's over all business, especially around the holidays. Planning in an organization that utilizes e-business can be very time consuming. It is imperative that management considers additional marketing and advertising strategies for their web consumers when creating and revealing products. Wal-Mart's online experience is proof that success in the brick and mortar world doesn't create corresponding success in e-commerce. Offline, Wal-Mart is a sprawling giant, the world's largest retailer. Its U.S. stores number 3,300 and it employs more than one million workers, which means about one out of every 300 Americans is a WalMart employee. "It's a real category killer," claims Gartner research director Geri Spieler, who says that that Wal-Mart's success is "what everyone is trying to compare to." Leveraging that success, Wal-Mart insists that any company that wants to be a supplier use the Wal-Mart EDI (electronic data interface). So Wal-Mart can replenish its stock - straight from wholesalers - faster than you can say "discount retail." And the giant is getting bigger, Spieler says. Wal-Mart is expanding its line to include designer clothes like those sold in Old Navy, and building its new stores with the capacity to offer more groceries. Wal-Mart plans on opening 70 new supercenters in 2003. The company markets like the behemoth it is. According to Wal-Mart spokesperson Cynthia Lin, the company mails 90 million copies of its ad

circular every month - meaning it's probably one of the most widely circulated publications in America.

But Online
Wal-Mart's dominant place in offline retail might be expected to provide it with top dog e-commerce status. But analysts say Walmart.com is distinctly back of the pack in terms of total online sales, and a list of traffic figures for leading e-commerce sites released by comScore Media Metrix for September supports this. At the top is e-commerce wunderkind eBay, with 34.4 million visitors, followed closely by Amazon (the site most closely resembling Walmart.com) with 25.6 million visitors. Working down the list, Yahoo Shopping had 24.5 million, Dell had 11.4 million, Barnes and Noble had 8.2 million, and MSN Shopping had 7.3 million. Down at #13, with 6.5 million visitors, is Walmart.com. A respectable showing, to be sure, but anemic considering that the company has been a household name for decades, and that Walmart.com has been selling online since July 1996.

Different customer Base

Wal-Mart's offline retail success isn't replicated online because, says Spieler, "that's not where their customer base is."She notes the typical online shopper is a very different creature than the typical Wal-Mart customer. "People who shop at Wal-Mart like to go to the store," she says. "Wal-Mart caters more to people with large families and people

who aren't in much of a hurry."The average online shopper tends to have greater expendable income and place more emphasis on saving time, she says. Many online shoppers fall into the "time-stressed" category of baby boomers that like having items delivered.As for the other reason that Walmart.com isn't an online leader, Spieler echoes a sentiment voice by many e-commerce analysts. In general, she says, the members of the retail segment are "technology laggards." "They're not as techno savvy as their Web sites would have you believe."

The Returns
Indeed, Wal-Mart, like many companies, has had its share of challenges in its online operations. In the 1999 holiday season, it had to warn consumers that it could not guarantee delivery of orders placed after December 14th - unusual for a retailer with such well developed infrastructure. Wal-Mart, seeking greater online expertise, spun Walmart.com off as a separate company, selling a minority stake to tech-savvy Accel Ventures in January 2000, moving the site's headquarters to Silicon Valley. But, in what was widely seen as an unusual tactic, Walmart.com shut down for a month in the fall of 2000 to revamp the site. That a major etailer would shut down its site in a holiday ramp-up period, instead of readying a platform beforehand, left some industry observers puzzled. (And the site still had numerous hour-long black outs after it came back online.)

In 2001, Wal-Mart bought back Accel's minority stake, so Walmart.com is once again a wholly owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart. Lin explains that the buy back was due to Wal-Mart's desire to focus on integrating its online and offline sales channels. Gartner's Spieler is of the opinion that Accel wasn't doing a good job with it. But, whatever the reason, Walmart.com, with or without outside help, appears to have a strategy for moving the site forward.

Certainly, the Walmart.com site would never be described as high tech. It still lacks the customer personalization features used by Amazon, and its straightforward blue and white design gives it a dowdy look. Yet it does have a touch of trendiness. Walmart.com recently launched a Netflix-style DVD rental plan. Users order DVDs through the site and receive them in the mail, keeping them as long they want with no late fees. Considering that Netflix itself has yet to make turn a profit,

Walmart.com's new venture is forward looking. And in true discount fashion, Walmart.com is undercutting Netflix's price by about a dollar. The site also offers Internet access. For $9.94 a month, you can buy unlimited dial-up service through Wal-Mart Connect, which is AOL service offered with the Wal-Mart brand. But the site slashes AOL's price in half by offering a bare bones ISP client without bells and whistles like instant messaging and e-mail filters.

The Real Secret

The giant discounter's true strength online is in its bricks 'n clicks integration, tying its Web site into its real world stores. "We recognized that one of the greatest values is in integrating the online and offline channel," says Wal-Mart's Lin. You can, for example, chose replacement tires at Walmart.com and have them installed at a local Wal-Mart. The site's pharmacy section lets you place an order to be picked up locally; you can also view your prescription history online and set up e-mail reminders for refills. The site's vision center offers a similar service for contact lenses. You can drop off photos to be developed at Wal-Mart and see the finished prints at Walmart.com, where you can e-mail them to friends or make them into gift cards. If you buy an item at Walmart.com, you can return it at a local Wal-Mart. If there's an item your local Wal-Mart is out of, it's likely that the site has it. Walmart.com stocks 500,000 books and 80,000 CDs, not to mention replacement lawn mower blades, hot tubs, women's shoes, and Harry Potter Lego sets. Though the site doesn't release inventory figures, it's probable that it has the largest inventory of any retailer, online or off. With the power of this integration, leveraging its massive offline presence to compliment its e-commerce operation, it may not matter that Walmart.com lags its online rivals. It is, after all, an effective part of an overall retail operation that is expected to generate $218 billion in revenue in 2002 (to put that in perspective, Microsoft's expected revenue is a paltry $28 billion). With a jaw-dropping revenue figure like that, Wal-Mart can afford to take its time in growing its online market share.

What

is

the

walmart

ebusiness

mission's

statement?
Walmart.com is passionate about combining the best of two great worlds - technology and world-class retailing - to give customers a wide assortment of their favorite products, Every Day Low Prices, guaranteed satisfaction, friendly service, convenient hours (24 hours, 7 days a week) and a great online shopping experience.

Investment
In 2010, Walmart consolidated its eCommerce activities around the world in a Global eCommerce Division. This division has three goals: 1) Develop and execute a global eCommerce strategy; 2) Accelerate global online channel growth; and 3) Create technology platforms and applications for every Walmart market.

Expansions in Online Market

Walmart is taking a 51% stake in Yihaodian, a leading Chinese ecommerce website, in a significant move by the U.S. retailer to boost its online presence in China.

Walmart did not disclose financial details for the partnership, which Neil Ashe, president and chief executive of Walmart Global e-commerce, said would help deliver a superb customer experience to consumers in China.

This is testament to how seriously Walmart is developing their ecommerce platform in China. Having a controlling stake obviously gives them a much more direct say in how Yihaodian expands, said Torsten Stocker, an analyst with the Monitor Group. Founded in 2008, Yihaodian is one of the fastest growing companies in China, selling more than 180,000 products ranging from grocery items to consumer electronics and apparel. Yihaodian, in which Walmart already held a minority stake, runs logistics centers in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Chengdu and is able to offer same-day and nextday delivery. The Chinese consumer e-commerce market is dominated by homegrown online retailer Taobao.

Walmart remains a relative novice in e-commerce in the United States where the market is led by Amazon. Online sales account for a tiny percentage of Walmarts total U.S. revenues, but in the past year it has sought to boost its in-house expertise by acquiring two U.S. technology companies: Kosmix, which specializes in organizing information from social media sites such as Facebook, and Small Society, which develops apps for mobile shopping.

While Walmarts website sells dried and packaged food as well as general merchandise for delivery across the US, its only involvement in selling fresh food online is a small pilot program launched in San Jose, California, last year.

Walmart has more than 350 stores in China, where it has been making steady progress. In the three months to the end of October it reported a 16.1% increase in China sales from the previous year, but although individual shoppers were spending more money on each trip, visitor numbers were down 7.1%.

The company this month appointed Greg Foran, a 30-year industry veteran, as the chief executive of its China business. Mr Foran will take over next month. His predecessor, Ed Chan, stepped down in October, the fourth senior-level departure for the China business in six months.

In October, Walmart China closed its stores in Chongqing for a fortnight after the local government found it had mislabeled ordinary pork as organic. Monitoring Walmart is as effective as punching cotton, Tang Chuan, head of enforcement at the Chongqing Administration of Industry and Commerce, told Xinhua news agency at the time.

Mr Ashe said that, in addition to helping Walmarts e-commerce goals in China, the increased investment in Yihaodian would further contribute to

Chinas domestic consumption, help stabilize prices, and advance expansion in the middle and western regions of China a nod to Beijings oft-repeated desire to make progress on these goals in the current Five Year plan.

Walmart has also joined hands with Facebook to Boost the Profits
Wal-Mart Inc. have joined hands with the social networking giant Facebook to help its retailers to connect with their customers through its local stores.

My Local Wal-Mart, is the page launched by Wal-Mart, which helps the retailers 9 million fans to know what is happening in their nearby stores. The effort covers about 3,500 Wal-Mart outlets and will send alerts to the companys Facebook fans about new products and discounts, the companies said.

With early Wal-Marts, customers would walk in and ask the store manager to get a product, said Stephen Quinn, chief marketing officer of Wal-Mart. This is going to allow this kind of communication at a national scale. Stores become more relevant on a local level because of interaction with customers.

Walmart

Buys

Facebooks

Birthday

And

Holiday

Reminder App Social Calendar

It looks like retail giant Walmart has made another acquisition. The ecommerce giant has bought Social Calendar, an app on Facebook that allows you to get birthday and holiday reminders by email and SMS, and to post personalized photo cards and other virtual greetings on friends Facebook Walls on their birthdays. Heres the message posted on Social Calendars site: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart) completed its purchase of Newput Corporations Social Calendar products, services and website. We remain committed to providing the highest level of service that you have come to expect with Social Calendar. Your service with Social Calendar will continue without any interruptions, and you will be notified in the future of any material updates or changes to your service. As weve written in the past, SocialCalendar, which was founded by Raj Lalwani and David Jordan, lets you plan events among Facebook friends, get movie showtimes and integrate events into a public calendar. Users can also import and get email reminders about events, birthdays and anniversaries and lets users buy virtual good icons as presents for friends and to mark events on calendars. In 2009, the company debuted a partnership with Hallmark cards (Hallmark also invested in Social Calendar), to allow users to send virtual cards and gifts as well. The app has 15 million installed users and around 400,000 monthly active users. Social Calendar cites 110 million+ birthdays, holidays, other special occasions added by users and sends 10 million email reminders each month.

It should be interesting to see what Walmart does with Social Calendar. The company recently launched Facebook app Shopycat, which suggests gifts based

on social profile of a friend. We know that Shopycat will function as an online store itself on Facebook, allowing users to buy from Walmart without every having to leave the social network. Social Calendars technology could be integrated into this app.

Walmart has been on an e-commerce tear, acquiring technologies and companies that can help add personalization, mobile, social media and other functionality to the buying process. Over the past year, Walmart has acquired social media technology provider Kosmix, Small Society, andOneRiot.

Wal-Mart: An E-Business Success Story

Possibly the single greatest success story of e-business and B2B implementation is that of the rise to dominance by Wal-Mart in the North American retail market. Love them or hate them, you have to hand it to Wal-Mart for their impressive growth in such a short time span. And arguably the single most important factor in this rise was their harnessing of the power of e-business, e-procurement, and the adjustment of internal processes to maximize this advantage. More than any other company, Wal-Mart has revolutionized supply chain management by using a pull model where customer demands drive the suppliers. Inventory control is finely honed and purchasing trends are available to suppliers, whom now must be able to quickly respond to the needs of millions of customers. The business decision to decentralize the procurement process means that front-line staff in every store can immediately order the appropriate stock electronically, which will in turn require rapid turnout of product from the suppliers. This rapid replenishment system, coupled with accurate purchasing forecasting, helps Wal-Mart reduce overall costs.

While not always good for suppliers in general, Wal-Marts power as a giant in business has helped in establishing new standards for B2B e-commerce. WalMarts mindset of cutting costs at all costs resulted in them deploying EDI over the Internet to eliminate the costly VAN altogether. EDI over the Internet (EDIINT) uses a new standard called AS2, a communication protocol that attempts to make EDI communications over the Internet both secure and reliable. By mandating their suppliers to use AS2, Wal-Mart leads the way in creating a demand for a new generation of EDI, and in turn drives the whole world of ebusiness forward. In order to strengthen its online presence, the retail

giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has named Neil Ashe as the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of its global eCommerce business, effective immediately. Ashe will replace the retiring Eduardo Castro-Wright, who will assist the new CEO in the transition process.