Business Operations And Management

RUNNING HEAD: BUSINESS OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
BUSINESS OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
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Author’s Note:

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Question 1: To grow, how should the two retailers confront each other and
build their Omni-channel operations?
Amazon and Walmart have been two of the most successful business organisation in
the retailer’s industry. The retailer’s industry has been changing its shape due to the business
operation style of these two companies. Several business organisations of this industry were
driven out by the business operation and growth of these two organisations. The provided
case study discusses the business operation style of these two companies. In this part, the way
these two organisations develop their Omni-channel operations by confronting each other
will be addressed.
Amazon is the largest online retail business organisation in this world. In comparison
with Walmart, the most significant competitor of Amazon, Amazon is one third the size of
Walmart regarding the revenue in 2017. Customer orientation, supplier-retailer relationships,
the implication of technology have helped this organisation to change the terms and
conditions of the retail industry. Due to the different focus, these two organisations did not
compete with each other directly. Walmart is mainly brick and mortar retail, and Amazon is
primarily prominent in the online ecommerce sector. For Omni-channel retailing, customer
preference is changing. To accomplish a competitive advantage, Amazon is expanding its
retail business towards brick and mortar presence (Petro 2017). It will help this organisation
to maintain a high rate of growth. The customer preference for Omni-channel retailing is
leading to an intense confront between these two companies. Failure to address customer
preference will create an adverse impact on the business organisation. Amazon's authority is
interested in developing the requisite capabilities to deliver an appropriate Omni-channel
shopping experience for the consumers. To provide better customer experience, Amazon is
focused on improving technology, innovative marketing, and strategic acquisitions. However,

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the massive amount of money is invested by this organisation to develop offline existence
Amazon. It will help the business organisation to provide better customer experience to
potential customers. The physical expansion of Amazon will provide product categories like
grocery and apparel for the customer. It will help the company to connect with the customer
appropriately. For the betterment of physical expansion, this organisation has started many
innovative actions like pick up location, delivery and return of products for the customer.
Through appropriate acquisition with a partner and an efficient strategic plan, Amazon started
its physical expansion. By 2017, this organisation established 330 fulfilment centre in the
USA, which is more than 145 million square feet of space (Cao 2014).
On the other hand, Walmart is the undisputed retail market leader of the USA. This
organisation provides groceries, general merchandise, and health products through 157
centres. The distribution system, followed by this organisation contains 6100 tractors, 61000
trailers, and more than 7800 drivers are the largest distribution network (Miller and Clifford
2013). Primarily this organisation provides the best offline shopping experience to the
customers by maintaining low product prices. However, to fulfil the customer preference, this
organisation started investing essential e-capabilities of the company. After 2015, the
management team of Walmart began to invest in the ecommerce sector by curtailing the
investment of offline stores. This organisation is expanding its online existence by investing
in online grocery, pick up towers, improvement of technologies, renovation of supply chain
facility, and expansion of grocery delivery location. The senior management team of this
company identified that technological improvement could be a significant part of improving
customer experience. A big data analytics team is hired by this company to improve
technology. For the ecommerce expansion, this organisation acquired an innovative
ecommerce company named Jet.com and retain the most experienced leader named Marc

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Lore as a CEO. The mobile shopping platform of this company is providing an Omni-channel
experience for the customer.
Question 2: What has been their past success in the playing field of their
nemesis?
Amazon, one of the largest online retail business organisation, has started building its
physical existence to fulfil customer demand. Besides of its ecommerce business, this
organisation is prioritising the physical expansion through product categories like grocery
and apparel. These initiatives were taken by the senior management team of Amazon to
enhance the control and presence in the offline market. To improve the physical expansion,
the management team of this company has launched several innovative programs, which
were pick up location, delivery procedure, and item return services. To accomplish success,
this organisation has to beat business organisation like Walmart, who is leading offline retail
business organisation in the USA. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, invested $13.7 billion to
enter the Whole Food Market (KUMAR and BHARDWAJ 2018). This initiative of this
company was one of the boldest entry in the brick-and-mortar retail business of 2017. In
2016, the treasure truck fleet was launched by this company. Must have products were carried
by these trucks of Amazon and by using mobile application customer can select the product
and pay for it. The attainment of this initiative helped the company to expand its business.
Within two years of launching this organisation has comprised thirty-five trucks for twenty-
five US cities and twelve UK cities (KUMAR and BHARDWAJ 2018). Every product is
available in this ecommerce business organisation. At present, the targeted customers of this
company are both online customers and offline customers. This approach will support the
company to expand its business not only online but also in offline business. To understand
the customers, this organisation stepped into the whole food groceries. To attract potential
offline customers, Amazon reduced the price of whole food by 25-50 % (KUMAR and