Wal-mart foreign expansion
Wal-mart is the world’s largest retailer. The company employs some 1.8million people,operates 3900 stores in the united states and 2700 in the rest of the world, and generated sales of $345 billion in the fiscal year ending january. some $77billion of these sales wrer generated in 15 nations out side of the united states. Facing a slowdown in growth in the united states, wal-mart began its international expansion in the early 1900s when it entered mexico, teaming up in a joint venture with cifra, mexico’s largest retailer, to open series of super-centers that sell both groceries and general merchandise.
Initially the retailer hit some headwinds in mexico. It quickly discovered that shopping habits wewe different. Most people prefered to buy fresh produce at local stores, particularly items like meat, tortillas , and pan dulce, which didn’t keep well overnight. Many consumers also lacked cars, and did not buy in large volumes as in the united states. Wal-mart adjusted its strategy to meet the local conditions, hiring local managers who understood mexican culture, letting those managers control merchandising strategy, building smaller stores that people could walk to, and offering more fresh produce, at the same time, the company believed that it could gradually change the shopping culture in mexico, educating consumers by showing them the benefits of its american merchandising culture. After all, wal-mart’s managers reasoned, people once shopped at small stores in the united states, but starting in the 1950s they increasingly gravitated towards large stores like Wal-Mart.As it built up its distribution systems in mexico, wal-mart was able to lower its own costes, which it passed on to mexico’s largest retailer, and the country is widely considered to be the company's most successful foreign venture.
Next Wal-Mart expanded into a number of developed nations,including Britain,Germany and South Korea.There its experiences have been less successful.In all three countries it found itself going head to head against well- established local rivals who had nicely matched their offerings to loval shopping habits and consumer preferences.Moreover,consumers in all three countries seemed to have a preference for higher quality merchandise and were not as attracted to Wal-Mart’s discount strategy as consumers in the United States and Mexico.After years of losses,Wal-Mart pulled out of Germany and South Korea in 2006.At the same time,it continued to look for retailing opportunities elsewhere,particularly in developing nations where it lacked strong local competitors,where it could gradually alter the shopping culture to its advantage,and where its low price strategy was appealing.
Recently,the centerpiece of its international expansion efforts has been China.Wal-Mart opened its first store in China in1996,but initially expanded very slowly,and by 2006 had only 66 stores.What Wal-Mart discovered,however,was that the Chinese were bargain hunters,and open to the low price strategy and wide selection offered at Wal-Mart stores.Indeed,in terms of their shopping habits,the emerging Chinese middle class seemed more like Americans than Europeans.But to success in China, Wal-Mart also found it had to adapt its merchandising and operations strategy to mesh with Chinese culture.One of the things that Wal-Mart has learned is that Chinese consumers insist that food must be freshly harvested,or even killed in front of them. Wal-Mart initially offended Chinese consumers by trying to sell them dead fish,as well as meat packed in Styrofoam and Cellophane.Shoppers turned their noses up at what they saw as old merchandise.So Wal-Mart began to display the meat uncovered,installed fish tanks into which shoppers could plunge fishing nets to pull out their evening meal,and began selling live turtles for turtle soup.Sales soared.
Wal-Mart has also learned that in China,success requires it to embrace unions.In my mid 2006 Wal-Mart broke with its long standing antagonism to unions and agreed to allow unions
in its Chinese stores.Many believe this set the stage for Wal-Mart’s most recent move, the purchase in December 2006 of a 35% stake in the Trust-Mart chain,which has 101 hypermarkets in 34 cities across China.Now Wal-Mart has proclamed that China lies at center of its growth strategy.By early 2009 Wal-Mart had some 243 stores in the country,and despite the global economic slowdown,the company insist that it will continue to open new stores in China at a “double digit rate”.
沃尔玛对外扩张
1沃尔玛是世界上最大的零售商。本公司员工有180万人，拥有3900家连锁店在美国和2700在世界其他地方，并产生了美元在一月结束的345000000000财年的销售额。约77billion这些销售是产生在15个国家的美国的一面。面对美国经济增长放缓，沃尔玛开始在当它进入墨西哥的20世纪早期的国际扩张，联手与希福拉合资企业，墨西哥最大的零售商，打开超级购物中心都卖杂货店和百货系列。
2最初，零售商在墨西哥遭遇一些阻力。它很快发现购物习惯是不同的。大多数人宁愿在当地商店购买新鲜农产品，特别是项目像肉，玉米饼，和甜面包，这也不好保存过夜。许多消费者还没有汽车，没有买大量的在美国。沃尔玛调整适应当地条件的策略，雇佣当地管理人员了解墨西哥文化，让那些管理者控制商品战略，建设规模较小的商店，人们可以步行到，并提供更多的新鲜农产品，同时，公司认为，它可以逐步改变购物文化在墨西哥，通过展示他们的美国的商业文化教育消费者的利益。毕竟，认为沃尔玛的管理人员，人们购物时的小商店在美国，但在20世纪50年代开始，他们越来越倾向于像沃尔玛大型商店。它建立了自己的分销系统在墨西哥，沃尔玛能够降低自己的成本，它通过向墨西哥最大的零售商，和国家被广泛认为是公司最成功的外国投资。
3下一个沃尔玛扩展到一些发达国家，包括英国，德国和韩国的经验。有没有那么成功。在所有三个国家发现自己去头对头对好了当地的竞争对手们很好地匹配他们的产品到地方的购物习惯和消费偏好。此外，在所有三个国家消费者似乎更高质量的商品的偏好并没有吸引到沃尔玛的折扣策略在美国和墨西哥的消费者。经过几年的损失，沃尔玛退出了德国和韩国的2006。同时，它继续寻找零售机会，特别是在发展中国家国家缺乏强大的本土竞争对手，在那里它可以逐渐改变购物文化的优势，并在其低价格策略是有吸引力的。
4最近，其国际扩张努力的核心一直是中国。沃尔玛于1996年在中国开设了第一家商店，但最初的扩展很慢，和2006只拥有66家分店。什么沃尔玛发现，然而，是中国人买便宜货的，开放的低价格策略，在沃尔玛商店提供广泛的选择。事实上，在他们的购物习惯，中国新兴的中产阶级似乎比欧洲人更像美国人。但是在中国成功，沃尔玛也发现它已经适应其销售和业务与中国文化网战略之一。沃尔玛已经学到的东西是，中国消费者认为食品必须新鲜，甚至在他们前面杀了。沃尔玛最初冒犯中国消费者试图通过出售他们死的鱼，以及肉类包装在塑料和玻璃。购物者瞧不起他们认为旧的商品。所以沃尔玛开始显示肉了，安装鱼缸，购物者可以把鱼网拉了他们的晚餐，并开始甲鱼汤出售活海龟销售飙升。
5沃尔玛还了解到，在中国，成功需要它拥抱工会。 在我的2006个月中沃尔玛打破了长期以来对抗工会同意
允许工会在中国商店。许多人相信这阶段沃尔玛的最新举动， 在好又多连锁35%的股份在十二月购买2006，这在中国34个 城市拥有101家大型超市。目前沃尔玛已经宣告，中国处于经 济增长策略的中心。2009年初，沃尔玛拥有243家分店，尽管 全球经济放缓，公司坚持认为它将继续开放新的商店在中国 “双数字率”。