low cost strategy the case of walmart

1 INTRODUCTION In the business process of each business, marketing is an important factor determining the business efficiency of that business Businesses not apply a single marketing strategy in the marketing process Marketing mix strategies are often used as a combination of single marketing strategies in advertising and sales However, there are well-known brands that are successful in brand positioning thanks to an outstanding single marketing strategy and so is Walmart Like other businesses, Walmart uses marketing mix in the marketing process, but the point of making the difference of Walmart compared to other retail groups in the world is because Walmart turns itself into a pricing leadership retailer in the World (Gregory, 2010) Pricing competitive strategies deals with the development of attributes that characterise a company and differentiate the value it creates and offers in comparison to its competitors the main idea about how the firm can best compete in the market However competition in the retail sector has been increasing for years, the importance of developing an effective competitive strategy appears to be increasing constantly Given that retailing has become a mature industry with overcapacity, high concentration and, in many cases, price-driven marketing strategies which have led to rather homogeneous stores, differentiation from competitors through positioning seems increasingly necessary, competitive strategy can be understood as the activities a company undertakes to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in a particular industry That is also the reason why our team made research “ Low cost strategy : The case of Walmart” more clearly assess the effectiveness of walmart's low price strategy on its own performance, thereby giving recommendations for enterprises to this strategy more effective at the present This paper including three chapters: • Chapter 1: Overview of marketing strategy and low cost strategy This chapter provides basic definitions of marketing, marketing strategies and low price strategy • Chapter 2: Analysis for low cost strategy in case of Walmart This chapter presents information about Walmart's low-price campaign, Walmart's way of applying this strategy and how to Walmart cut down production costs • Chapter 3: Solutions This chapter presents General assessment of advantages and disavantages of low cost strategy to Walmart and give out some recommendations 3 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF MARKETING STRATEGIES AND LOW COST STRATEGY 1.1 Definition of marketing strategy Marketing: Marketing refers to activities undertaken by a company to promote the buying or selling of a product or service Marketing includes advertising, selling, and delivering products to consumers or other businesses Marketing strategy: A marketing strategy is a business's overall game plan for reaching people and turning them into customers of the product or service that the business provides The marketing strategy of a company contains the company’s value proposition, key marketing messages, information on the target customer and other high-level elements (Adam Baron, 2019) The marketing strategy informs the marketing plan, which is a document that lays out the types and timing of marketing activities A company’s marketing strategy should have a longer lifespan than any individual marketing plan as the strategy is where the value proposition and the key elements of a company’s brand reside These things ideally not shift very much over time 1.2 Marketing Mix and classification Definition: The marketing mix refers to the set of actions that a company uses to promote its brand or product in the market The 4Ps which make up a typical marketing mix include Price, Product, Promotion and Place However, nowadays, the marketing mix increasingly includes several other Ps which modify and improve the system of 4Ps to become 7Ps All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other They make up the business plan for a company and handled right, can give it great success The marketing mix needs a lot of understanding, market research and consultation with several people, from users to trade to manufacturing and several others (Marketing mix, 2018) Classification: 4Ps include Price, Product, Place and Promotion • Price: refers to the value that is put for a product It depends on costs of production, segment targeted, ability of the market to pay, supply - demand and a host of other direct and indirect factors There can be several types of pricing strategies, each tied in with an overall business plan Pricing can also be used a demarcation, to differentiate and enhance the image of a product • Product: refers to the item actually being sold The product must deliver a minimum level of performance; otherwise even the best work on the other elements of the marketing mix won't any good • Place: refers to the point of sale In every industry, catching the eye of the consumer and making it easy for her to buy it is the main aim of a good distribution or 'place' strategy Retailers pay a premium for the right location • Promotion: this refers to all the activities undertaken to make the product or service known to the user and trade This can include advertising, word of mouth, press reports, incentives, commissions and awards to the trade It can also include consumer schemes, direct marketing, contests and prizes As well as the standard four afore-mentioning Ps, services marketing adds three elements which are People, Process and Physical Evidence, totaling seven and known together as the extended marketing mix • People: Any person coming into contact with customers can have an impact on overall satisfaction Whether as part of a supporting service to a product or involved in a total service, people are particularly important because, in the customer's eyes, they are generally inseparable from the total service As a result of this, they must be appropriately trained, well-motivated and the right type of person Fellow customers are also sometimes referred to under 'people', as they too can affect the customer's service experience • Process: This is the process involved in providing a service and the behavior of people, which can be crucial to customer satisfaction • Physical evidence: Unlike a product, a service cannot be experienced before it is delivered, which makes it intangible This, therefore, means that potential customers could perceive greater risk when deciding whether or not to use a service To reduce the feeling of risk, thus improving the chance for success, it is often vital to offer potential customers the chance to see what a service would be like This is done by providing physical evidence, such as case studies, or testimonials 1.3 The concept of Low cost strategy Low cost strategy is a pricing strategy in which a company offers a relatively low price to stimulate demand and gain market share It is one of three generic marketing strategies that can be adopted by any company, and is usually employed where the product has few or no competitive advantage or where economies of scale are achievable with higher production volumes This strategy is suitable for large-scale business units that are able to reduce the cost of operating processes that allow businesses to overcome competitors by producing goods and services at low cost Enterprises with low cost strategies choose low product differentiation because differentiation has a high cost so if the enterprise spends resources focusing on making a difference to the product, the cost of production export will increase Enterprises advocating to achieve differences in products are not higher than enterprises according to differentiated strategies but must achieve low cost Often businesses only make a difference when customers need it Enterprises with low cost strategy not pay attention to market segments and often provide products to average customers The reason businesses follow this low cost strategy is because it is costly to meet different needs in different markets Although no customer is completely satisfied with the products of the enterprise, the enterprise still attracts customers because it sets prices lower than its competitors To achieve this strategy, the goal of enterprises under low-cost strategy is necessarily to develop capabilities that allow businesses to increase efficiency and reduce costs compared to competitors Developing different capacities in production and raw material management is a core issue to achieve this goal Businesses pursuing low-cost strategies try to quickly move down to the bottom of the experience curve to reduce production costs In order to get low-cost businesses need to develop skills in flexible production and use effective material management skills Besides, enterprises pursuing low-cost strategy must also focus on other functions to create different capacity of enterprises to meet the requirements of production management and materials For example, sales functions can develop capabilities, attract more and stabilize customer orders It then allows production to be more operational and thus economies of scale and cost reduction Human resource management functions can focus on training programs and remuneration systems to reduce costs by improving labor productivity, and research and development functions can focus on product improvement to reduce production costs 1.4 The pros and cons of Low cost strategy Advantages: • Because of the low cost, businesses can bid lower than their competitors but still have the same level of profits as them If businesses in the industry place the same price for their products, low-cost businesses will earn higher profits • If industry competition increases and businesses start to compete on prices, low-cost businesses will be able to withstand better competition than others • When alternative products appear, businesses can be more flexible in competition by reducing costs Enterprises with low costs create barriers to limit new firms to the industry Disadvantages: • Businesses need require great capital if they want to start Low cost strategy • Enterprises can encounter difficulties when there is a change in technology • The risk of being imitated can happen 1.5 The enterprises that use Low cost strategy Nowadays, there are a lot of both Vietnam and foreign businesses using effectively Low cost strategy which has helped them to gain big revenue, raise their competitive capacity in worldwide as well as domestic market They are Walmart, Vinamilk, BigC, Viettel, Jetstar Pacific, Dell, Toyota, Honda and so on CHAPTER 2: ANALYSIS FOR LOW COST STRATEGY IN CASE OF WALMART 2.1 Company overview 2.1.1 Introduction Walmart is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores Headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, the company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and incorporated on October 31, 1969 Sam Walton was born in 1918 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma In 1945, Sam and his wife moved to Newport, Arkansas During this time, Sam gained early retail experience, eventually operating his own variety store Inspired by the early success of his dime store, and driven to bring even greater opportunity and value to his customers, Sam opened the first Walmart in 1962 at the age of 44 in Rogers, Arkansas As of April 30, 2019, Walmart has 11,368 stores and clubs in 27 countries, operating under 55 different names It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Chile, Canada, and South Africa Walmart is the world's largest company by revenue - over 500 billion USD, according to Fortune Global list in 2018 - as well as the largest private employer in the world with 2.2 million employees It is a publicly traded family-owned business, as the company is controlled by the Walton family Sam Walton's heirs own over 50 percent of Walmart through their holding company, Walton Enterprises, and through their individual holdings Walmart was the largest U.S grocery retailer in 2019, and 65 percent of Walmart's 510.329 billion USD sales came from U.S operations Walmart's investments outside North America have seen mixed results: its operations and subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, South America, and China are highly successful, whereas its ventures in Germany and South Korea failed (Wikipedia, 2019) Figure 2-1 Walmart’s financial figures from 2010 – 2018 Total Assets 170,407 180,782 193,406 203,105 204,751 203,490 199,581 198,825 204,522 Source: Wikipedia 2.1.2 Operating divisions Walmart's operations are organized into four divisions: Walmart U.S., Walmart International, Sam's Club and Global e-Commerce The company offers various retail formats throughout these divisions, including supercenters, supermarkets, hypermarkets, warehouse clubs, cash-and-carry stores, home improvement, specialty electronics, restaurants, apparel stores, drugstores, convenience stores, and digital retail 10 • Walmart U.S Walmart U.S is the company's largest division, accounting for 331.666 billion USD, or 65 percent of total sales, for fiscal 2019 It consists of three retail formats that have become commonplace in the United States: Supercenters, Discount Stores, Neighborhood Markets, and other small formats The discount stores sell a variety of mostly non-grocery products, though emphasis has now shifted towards supercenters, which include more groceries As of April 30, 2019, there are a total of 4,763 Walmart U.S stores • Walmart International As of April 30, 2019, Walmart's international operations comprised 6,006 stores and 800,000 workers in 26 countries outside the United States There are wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, and the UK With 2.2 million employees worldwide, the company is the largest private employer in the U.S and Mexico, and one of the largest in Canada In fiscal 2019 Walmart's international division sales were 120.824 billion USD, or 23.7 percent of total sales • Sam's Club Sam's Club is a chain of warehouse clubs that sell groceries and general merchandise, often in bulk The first Sam's Club was opened by Walmart, Inc in 1983 in Midwest City, Oklahoma under the name "Sam's Wholesale Club" The chain was named after its founder Sam Walton As of April 30, 2019, Sam's Club operated 599 membership warehouse clubs and accounted for 11.3% of Walmart's revenue at 57.839 billion USD in fiscal year 2019 • Global Ecommerce Based in San Bruno, California, Walmart's Global eCommerce division provides online retailing for Walmart, Sam's Club, Asda, and all other international brands There are several locations in the United States in California and Oregon: San Bruno, Sunnyvale, Brisbane, and Portland Locations outside of the United States include Shanghai (China), Leeds (United Kingdom), and Bangalore (India) 10 11 2.1.3 Customer Base Walmart customers cite low prices as the most important reason for shopping there The average U.S Walmart customer's income is below the national average In 2006, Walmart took steps to expand its U.S customer base, it unveiled a new slogan: "Saving people money so they can live better lives" This reflects the three main groups into which Walmart categorizes its 200 million customers: • Brand aspirationals: people with low incomes who are obsessed with big name brands • Price-sensitive affluents: wealthier shoppers who love deals • Value-price shoppers: people who like low prices and cannot afford much more • Walmart has also made steps to appeal to more liberal customers 2.1.4 Competitors In North America, Walmart's primary competitors include grocery stores and department stores like Aldi, Kmart, Kroger, Sobeys and Giant Tiger Competitors of Walmart's Sam's Club division are Costco and the smaller BJ's Wholesale Club chain Walmart's move into the grocery business in the late 1990s set it against major supermarket chains in both the United States and Canada Several smaller retailers, primarily dollar stores, such as Family Dollar and Dollar General, have been able to find a small niche market and compete successfully against Walmart Walmart also had to face fierce competition in some foreign markets For example, in Germany it had captured just percent of the German food market following its entry into the market in 1997 and remained "a secondary player" behind Aldi with 19 percent Walmart continues to well in the UK, where its Asda subsidiary is the second-largest retailer In May 2006, after entering the South Korean market in 1998, Walmart sold all 16 of its South Korean outlets to a local retailer, for US$882 million It was re-branded the Walmart as E-mart store 11 12 Walmart struggled to export its brand elsewhere as it rigidly tried to reproduce its model overseas In China, Walmart hopes to succeed by adapting and doing things preferable to Chinese citizens 2.2 Marketing of Walmart from 1969 From very beginning, Walmart concentrated on one important policy – low pricing and managed to keep until the moment 2.2.1 Economic Potential 1969, The company officially incorporates as Wal-Mart Stores, Inc 1970, Walmart becomes a publicly traded company The first stock is sold at $16.50 per share Figure 2-2 Walmart’s Sales and Number of stores Source: Annual report of Walmart 1972 In 1969, Walmart’s sale was 21.365.281 USD with 27 stores and keep increasing to 78.014.164 USD in 1972 with 51 stores In 1972, 300,000 shares of Wal-mart were listed on the New York Stock Exchange for $15 but sold $16.50 per share At that time, the Walton family owned only 61 percent of the shares, but Wal-mart was able to cover all debts and from then on, no longer had to borrow anywhere By raising capital in the primary and secondary markets, Wal-mart has quickly solved debt issues, expanding the market towards building the world's leading company (Walmart, Annual report for Walmart stores inc, 1972) This result was thanked to the right strategy of Walmart, they aim to the what the customers want In 1992, Sam Walton declared the overview of the company with the core values and core purposes make the based orientation for the Walmart’s action: “The secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want And really, if you think about it from your point of view as a customer, you want everything: 12 13 a wide assortment of good-quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; free parking; a pleasant shopping experience To become the worldwide leader in retailing, our first responsibility is to provide all consumers with the best products and services with guaranteed satisfaction under one roof.” And the mission of Walmart in 1992 is: “If we work together, we’ll lower the cost of living for everyone…we’ll give the world an opportunity to see what it’s like to save and have a better life.”- Sam Walton Even before the Walmart was established, Sam Walton’s orientation is to open the discount stores, proof is his previous store’s name is “Five and Dime” And in 1970s was the time that the discount stores were popular, he had travel whole country and learn many things, he caught the wave of the discount stores and be the most successful man (Walmart, Our History, n.d.) 2.2.2 Pricing Strategy of Walmart Everyday Low Price (EDLP), this is the strategy Walmart used in very first days, a strategy that offers low prices to customers throughout the year instead of offering these low prices only on sales events This strategy increases both sales and customer loyalty Right in the notice board at the way in of the Walmart, the words “Discount” and “Sell for Less” were used to tell that the main different of Walmart stores from the others is the price, their price is always lower and is the best choice for the customers And in the TV commercials, the thing Walmart emphasized was always price Other stores just decreased their product’s price on the sale events, but Walmart said they offered the low price everyday, it was the smart way to attract the consumers For example, you bought a shirt in another store at $20 but you can buy the same shirt in Walmart with $18 or lower Wal-Mart's products were usually priced 20% lower than those of its competitors Walton's pricing strategy led to increased loyalty from priceconscious rural customers It helped the company to generate more profits due to larger 13 14 volumes Explaining his pricing strategy, Walton said, "By cutting your price, you can boost your sales to a point where you earn far more at the cheaper retail price than you would have by selling the item at the higher price In retailer language, you can lower your markup but earn more because of the increased volume (Jayasy, 2017) 2.2.3 Cutting down pricing methods • Low Cost Leadership To arrive at such consumer-friendly rates, Walmart focuses on the strategy of low cost leadership This strategy gives them a competitive advantage over their rivals It maintains a low cost of operation, and this enables Walmart to produce and sell goods of competitive or even better quality, at lower costs than other retailers Walmart gradually increased its market share by striving to decrease its cost of operation, even lower than other retail chains It did so by offering high volumes of basic commodities, and by limiting or cutting back on personalized service It looks to innovate not by focusing on new product development, but by concentrating extensively on process improvement • Economies of Scale Walmart benefits from the concept of economies of scale, which causes its average production costs to dramatically fall, and output to increase It does this by purchasing materials in bulk from vendors by having long-term contracts in place Another factor is Walmart tries to obtain low interest rates from banks when it borrows large sums of money It also tries to reduce its marketing costs by distributing its advertising costs over a wider output range These factors are instrumental in reducing their average production costs Targeting the mass market with tried and tested products has always been Walmart's strategy • Low Operation and Production Costs Walmart maintains low operation and production costs by using standard and less number of component parts It tries to keep overhead expenses to a minimum by offering low wages to workers and leasing sites in low-rent areas Goods are 14 15 manufactured in countries where labor is very cheap To keep up with low operation costs in every aspect of its business, it controls production costs, and limits costs involved in outsourcing, distribution, advertising, and research and development • Effective Supply Chain Management Walmart started the EDLP (Every Day Low Prices) approach To make the most out of this technique, Walmart also has a very effective supply chain management in place, to ensure it keeps its prices low It maintains a tight control over its logistics, transport, and inbound supplies Being a tough negotiator, it exerts a fair deal of bargaining power over all its suppliers It ensures that its suppliers maintain very low production prices and produce items on a large-scale This enables Walmart to buy bulk quantities of the product at the lowest price possible • Cross-Docking When it comes to transportation of goods, Walmart owns an extensive fleet of trucks which ensures that all products are delivered to its stores through the network of distribution channels in the least amount of time possible By eliminating middlemen and not depending on external transport supply chains, Walmart cut down heavily on its business costs Using the technique of cross-docking effectively, Walmart has eliminated any inventory handling, storage, and warehousing costs, ensuring products reach the distribution centers and from thereon, to its vast customer base at a faster rate • Radio Frequency Identification Tags RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Tag) tagging, an innovative use of information management, helps Walmart keep an accurate and up-to-date record of its inventory all over the country Goods are tagged at the time of manufacture, and the sale of goods is relayed to all its distribution centers and suppliers This means that the goods that are sold are replaced back on the shelf with new products within no time, thanks to the exemplary use of information technology 15 16 With a low cost, high volume strategy, excellent store locations, and exceptional use of economies of scale, Walmart continues to offer low prices on its goods Little wonder then, the retail giant is able to maintain its stronghold in the marketplace, generating high returns and maintaining a loyal customer base (Kale, 2017) 2.2.4 React from competitors & customers • From competitors Walmart has gained immense success from EDLP However, not all of its competitors followed suit and adopted the strategy It is expensive for a retailer to switch to EDLP and the retailer needs to maintain EDLP for a long time for the customers to associate the brand with lower prices There are other retailers in the US, namely Kroger who offer goods at very low prices Kroger unveiled a “Restock Kroger” plan in October 2017 that focused on even lower prices The program seems to be successful with Kroger’s sales going up 4.5% Two German grocery chains, Aldi and Lidl are in the process of expansion in the US market, with prices less than Walmart or Kroger In September 2017, Kroger’s prices were 31% higher than those of Aldi and Lidl, and Walmart’s prices were 5.3% higher than the German chains Aldi and Lidl are able to offer low prices by limiting inventory to a selection of few items Whereas Walmart offers a wide range of products Other cost-cutting techniques include displaying items in shipping cartons to make restocking easier and Lidl also requires customers to bring in their own grocery bags • From customers Consumers can only be benefitted by the price wars as prices go down while quality is not diminished much EDLP is preferred by today’s shoppers who are less frequent in shopping for groceries as they get low prices regardless of when they visit the stores Moreover, when Walmart marks the price of a product as $271, consumers 16 17 get the feeling that the store has already reduced the price so much that they could not offer a further discount of even $1 Walmart has a presence in almost every market segment and a reach to a very wide customer base It certainly helps that there is a Walmart outlet within 15 miles of 90% of the American population And in the leaflets, advertising, TV commercials, Walmart always used the images of customer, that make the customers feel respected That is what Walmart did best, they thought as customers to understand what they want and supply it That’s why they succeed 17 18 CHAPTER 3: SOLUTIONS 3.1 General assessment of The effect of Low cost strategy to company Price strategy is an important factor that determines success and competition with a late postpartum product of any business in the market Price strategy is always the most expensive strategy Normally, the price war is only applied in cases: (1) your product is a popular commodity, the market is saturated and can only be identified by price (eg salt , sugar ) or (2) large companies use this strategy to destroy weaker and smaller competitors In the case of (1), it is mandatory to use the main competitive strategy price In case (2), the price is a cabinet blow and only applied in short terms, otherwise there will be side effects and may lose the inherent position In most cases, the main competitive strategy used is differentiation (price differentiation) and price is only a surface manifestation There are many specific examples that we can mistake as competitive prices, but actually below is a non-stop differentiation effort There are many specific examples to illustrate this point of view The overall advantage of this low-cost strategy is to reduce the pressure of all five competitive forces in the model of five competitive forces of Michael Porter Businesses compete well and may even put pressure on competitors to compete in the current industry thanks to low cost advantages Enterprises are subjected to lower pressure from customers, creating pressure on suppliers on prices, payment conditions, delivery by large order sizes, creating barriers to preventing the industry's entry potential rivals thanks to economies of scale Finally, businesses can flexibly deal with alternative products by reducing product prices, retaining customers, thus retaining market share Advantages: 18 19 • Allowing enterprises to gain a high market share, thus gaining high profits, making businesses accumulate experience quickly and have great market power • Create customer loyalty, improve business image • Create major entry barriers, limit the participation of potential competitors • Enterprises can control the behavior of competitors, avoiding the price war • Enterprises resist the competitive pressure of customers on suppliers • Enterprises have conditions to invest more in production development and distribution networks to create more advantages in price • Due to high profitability, enterprises have conditions to invest and nurture new products Besides the above advantages, this strategy also exists: certain disadvantages Disadvantages: • This strategy requires a lot of assets and activities that require a lot of investment • Competitive advantages are difficult to be protected for a long time due to cost reduction methods that are easily copied and imitated by other businesses • This strategy is based on standardized products, which in turn will lead businesses to a state of change, less flexibility and slow response to the market • Price competition will easily lead to a price war that makes every business suffer and threaten the interests of the whole industry • It requires big investment when businesses find ways to exploit experience effects • To take advantage of economies of scale, enterprises need to mass produce, but an important content of mass production is to standardize the process, standardize products The concept of normalization often comes with a lack of flexibility; rigid while demand is a fluctuation Therefore, the disadvantage is that the production line is less flexible in response to changing market demand, due to standardization of products and production processes In addition, this strategy is also likely to cause a price war when many 19 20 businesses in the industry pursue this strategy (Ưu nhược điểm chiến lược chi phí thấp, 2019) 3.2 Recommended Solutions • Continuous improvement of labor performance • Specialization of production • Quality improvement & product design: A huge cost reduction can be achieved by redesigning the product • Exploiting the experience curve: Production managers know that a person will the job faster and make fewer mistakes when he or she regularly does it For example, with the same heart surgery, the group of surgeons used to take eight hours to complete After a while, when there is a lot of experience, the same surgery can be done successfully in just five hours This is also evident in the production environment when managers and employees focus on learning • Creating a supply chain cannot be defeated Excellent performance is just an important part of a low-cost lead strategy As we will see later, becoming a low-cost leader involves more problems First, it requires a thorough plan to build the business structure Take a look at the following story: If you want to sail faster, you can't simply wax wax the barrels you call ships so they float on the water and train sailors to drive them You have to build a ship with a motor and designed to accelerate In the company too, you have to build an organizational structure to get the leading position in low cost CHAPTER 4: 20 21 CONCLUSION In conclusion, after the overall analysis of Wal-Mart and the industry in which it is operating, strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats are identified To help Wal-Mart achieve greater success and continue its profitable sales, Wal-Mart should exploit its strengths, utilize opportunities, improve weaknesses and remove threats Thus, recommendations associated with each section should be carefully considered and adopted 21 22 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We are sincerely grateful for all the help and advices we received from our supervisor M.S Phan Kim Thoa We appreciated all the time and effort M.S Phan Kim Thoa put into helping, guiding and encouraging us during the time of making this project 22 23 REFERENCES Adam Baron (2019, April 19) Marketing Strategy Retrieved May 26, 2019 from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketing-strategy.asp Gregory, A (2010, Jan 25) Types of Marketing Strategies to Spice Up Your Campaigns Retrieved May 26, 2019, from Sitepoint: https://www.sitepoint.com/4-types-of-marketing/? fbclid=IwAR0OKXr0zzDhn8rshrnCP64AondNY8Rs6286PJTyaFIP3hO2MD2d lTq_WzE Jayasy, A (2017, Dec 05) Pricing Strategy of Walmart Retrieved May 27, 2019 from Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/pricing-strategy-walmart-aadil- jayasy/ Kale, S (2017, June 14) How Does Walmart Keep Its Prices So Low? Retrieved May 26, 2019 from Businesszeal: https://businesszeal.com/how-does-walmart-keepits-prices-so-low Marketing mix (2018, May 04) Retrieved May 25, 2019 from The Economic Times: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/marketing-mix? fbclid=IwAR2fV6h8ppqlqtNJYNZuoTIza4oAs6WFsaTUyVO0knCX8uFxgCV 13jcxszo Ưu nhược điểm chiến lược chi phí thấp (2019) Retrieved May 28, 2019 from Giáo trình quản trị chiến lược: http://giaotrinhquantrichienluoc.blogspot.com/2015/07/uu-va-nhuoc-iem-cuachien-luoc-chi-phi.html Walmart (1972) Annual report for Walmart stores inc Walmart Walmart (n.d.) Our History Retrieved 05 24, 2019 from Walmart: https://corporate.walmart.com/our-story/our-history Wikipedia (2019, May 20) Walmart Retrieved May 20, 2019 from Wikipedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart? 23 24 fbclid=IwAR2IkGugvI5vQ4bCL0dI5yKehaJU2Z5Q7dfxNoVCRYwXy7qHFSeJ76XApk 24 ... Because of the low cost, businesses can bid lower than their competitors but still have the same level of profits as them If businesses in the industry place the same price for their products, low- cost. .. board at the way in of the Walmart, the words “Discount” and “Sell for Less” were used to tell that the main different of Walmart stores from the others is the price, their price is always lower... rates, Walmart focuses on the strategy of low cost leadership This strategy gives them a competitive advantage over their rivals It maintains a low cost of operation, and this enables Walmart