Report on SWOT Analysis of Walmart (Asda) in Global Business

This report delves into the global business environment of Walmart (Asda), a UK-based retail company, through a comprehensive SWOT analysis. The analysis examines Asda's internal and external factors, including strengths such as its wide product range, excellent distribution channels, and effective marketing campaigns. Weaknesses include a limited global presence and recent controversies. Opportunities encompass online shopping growth, expansion into new markets, and strategic acquisitions. Threats stem from competitors, price wars, and changing government policies. The report further analyzes the operational impact of key drivers like marketing techniques, pricing models, and competitor actions, highlighting their influence on Asda's operations and marketing functions. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of understanding these drivers for effective business decision-making, supported by a detailed reference section including books and journals.

BM461 Global Business
Environment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
SWOT Analysis of Walmart (Asda)...........................................................................................3
Operational Impact Analysis.......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Business environment of any firm refers to the combination or sum total of all the internal and
external forces which can impact directly or indirectly the performance of the business
enterprise. If it is taken in the global context, this include an analysis in-depth of the environment
of the business at various levels like national and international levels. In this report
Walmart(Asda) which is a UK based retail company operating in the supermarket insudtry, has
been taken to evaluate the internal and external drivers of business environment through SWOT
analysis.
MAIN BODY
SWOT Analysis of Walmart (Asda)
SWOT analysis of any firm involves its Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities And Threats. It is
the examination of the internal and external environment of every business, so that the
organisations must consider it before taking decisions. This report is based on Asda's SWOT
analysis, so that it internal and external factors which can influence its performance can be
identified (Elavarasan and et. al., 2020). Strengths and weaknesses are considered as the part of
internal environment whereas opportunities and threats are part of external environment of every
business.
Asda's Strengths
 Wide product range: Asda enjoys a huge product range which includes mobile phone
provider and financial services as well.
 Distribution channel: Asda has excellent distribution channel. It has around 25 stores in
UK for distribution.
 Marketing compaign: Asda is known for its marketing compaigns which helps in
promotions of various product and services offerings. This will create customer delight as
well.
 Connectivity with customers: Asda has good connectivity with its customers through
online platforms and social networking sites where they ask for customer's feedback as
well.
 Acquisitions: It has acquired many brands which must be helpful in strengthening its base
(Forleo and Palmieri, 2019).

Asda's Weaknesses
 Minimum global presence: Asda has quite low presence on international level as against
its competitors who enjoys good global presence.
 Restrictive entry: Asda's pricing policy has restricted it to enter in fewer countries
because of fear from local companies.
 Price fixing, false advertisement and meat scandal in recent times has added to its
weaknesses. Price fixing causes loss to the customers, where false advertisement leads to
wrong image building of the company. Asda has also been criticized for its quality
compromising.
Asda's opportunities
 It has positioned itself in the market as the best quality products with the lowest possible
price.
 Customers in UK are interested more in online shopping so the company has the
opportunity to grow and expand its customer's base through digital marketing (Luoto and
Lonkila, 2018).
 Expansion to new industry like pharmacy and optician and also to new markets like India
and China can be helpful in brand visibility.
 Asda can also grow through acquisitions of small companies and opening its distribution
stores abroad.
Asda' Threats
 Asda's biggest threat is from its competitors like Tesco who is leading the retail market of
UK and its closest rivals Sainsbury's and Morrisons.
 The policy of competitor's to consistently cutting prices is a big threat to Asda because
already it has thin profit margins and any further decrease in it must be dangerous for it
(Sarsby, 2016).
 Policies of various government keep changing which causes a big threat to Asda.
In this way every organisation like Asda has some or the other key drivers in its internal and
external environment which can impact its performance and this must be considered while
making business decisions.

Operational Impact Analysis
Key drivers are the factors that are both internal and external to the firm affecting the overall
performance and indicate warning signs earlier about weaknesses and threats that can be result in
lower performances. From the above analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
it can be easily identified that Asda has its key drivers like its marketing techniques, pricing
model, competitors, profit margins and positioning in the marketplace (Sharma and Sehrawat,
2020). These key drivers can impact its functional areas like operations and marketing in several
ways.
Impact of key drivers on Operations
Operations of any company like Asda here, include various activities such as manufacturing,
selling, assuring quality, advertising, marketing and distribution. These all can be affected by the
internal and external forces of the business environment and its key drivers. Like in case of Asda,
it has a very thin profit margin due to its policy of lower price and best quality, if there is a
negative price movement of its rivals offerings then it has to incorporate the same. But following
the rivals move must affect the operations of Asda like quality compromising. It may losses its
efficiency due to lower margins (Stonehouse, 2018). Asda must established a link between its
various resources and performance to minimise the negative impact of its key drivers. If there is
further decrease in the prices of its product and service offerings then it may cause operating loss
because already it has thin margins.
Impact of key drivers on Marketing
Marketing function include developing product and services, pricing of these products and
services, distribution techniques and promotional activities. These all activities are of major
importance in the survival and success of any firm. Marketing manager must consider these
marketing activities of its rival firms. Asda has a threat from its competitor's price policy and it
faces problem due to its competitor's continuous price cutting strategy in order to win in the
marketplace (Widodo and et. al., 2019). As Asda has low profit margins, it cannot further
decrease its prices and if it does so then it would be difficult for them to spend on promotional
activities as it requires a lot of fund. Asda's marketing function accordingly affected due to the
decrease in profit margins. As Asda has a strength of marketing campaign which can be utilised
to explore in new market where its competitors has not yet accessed. Also, it maintains

connectivity with its customers through various online platforms like social media which can
also be used for grabbing opportunity of digital marketing.
CONCLUSION
From the above report on global business environment, it has concluded that there are
various internal and external forces which is also known as key drivers of business performance
that must be studied well by the management and accordingly plan for future events. Their
decision must be backed by these forces because ignorance of this can lead to lower performance
and business failure. This forces can be best analysed through the technique of SWOT analysis
as is done of Asda in this report.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Elavarasan, R. M. and et. al., 2020. SWOT analysis: A framework for comprehensive evaluation
of drivers and barriers for renewable energy development in significant countries. Energy
Reports. 6. pp.1838-1864.
Forleo, M. B. and Palmieri, N., 2019. The potential for developing educational farms: a SWOT
analysis from a case study. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension. 25(5).
pp.431-442.
Luoto, L. and Lonkila, A., 2018. The Use of SWOT Analysis for Future Scenarios: A Case Study
of Privacy and Emerging Technologies. In Envisioning Uncertain Futures (pp. 105-131).
Springer VS, Wiesbaden.
Sarsby, A., 2016. SWOT analysis. Lulu. Com.
Sharma, M. and Sehrawat, R., 2020. Quantifying SWOT analysis for cloud adoption using
FAHP-DEMATEL approach: evidence from the manufacturing sector. Journal of
Enterprise Information Management.
Stonehouse, D., 2018. SWOT: what is it all about and how do you use it?. British Journal of
Healthcare Assistants. 12(12). pp.617-619.
Widodo, A. K., and et. al., 2019. Formulating a Strategic Management of Social E-Commerce
through a Combination of SWOT and PESTLE Analysis: Case Study.
Online
SWOT Analysis of Asda (Complete SWOT Matrix and Analysis). 2019. [Online] Available
through<https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-asda/>
SWOT analysis of ASDA. 2020. [Online] Available through <https://howandwhat.net/swot-
analysis-asda/>