Marketing 621 Case Study: Analyzing Walmart Inc. vs. Amazon.com

This case study examines the competitive landscape between Walmart and Amazon, focusing on their strategies in the e-commerce market. Walmart, with its extensive physical presence and large workforce, faces challenges from Amazon's robust online platform and efficient fulfillment centers. The case highlights Walmart's efforts to compete with Amazon through strategic acquisitions like Jet.com, and collaborations with Google, Uber, Dely, and Lyft to improve its delivery logistics and voice-shopping capabilities. Amazon's strengths include its pricing strategy, vast product selection, and advanced infrastructure. The analysis underscores the importance of adapting to changing consumer behavior and technological advancements in the retail industry, specifically how Walmart is attempting to increase its online sales and compete with Amazon's growing customer base and market share. The case also emphasizes the significance of logistics and supply chain management in the e-commerce sector, especially the impact of Amazon's Kiva robots.

Running head: WALMART INC. TAKES ON AMAZON.COM
Walmart Inc. takes on Amazon.com
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Table of Contents
Summary..........................................................................................................................................2
References and Bibliography...........................................................................................................4

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Summary
Walmart is the largest retailer in the world ecommerce industry because of its human
capital and market strategy to deal with the market competition. The continuous increase in the
revenue and net income made the company unbeatable. The revenue grew approximately from
$100 billion to $450 billion from 1997 to 2017. The company always came up with some
innovative ideas to deal with its competitors as it did with jet.com. The jet.com used to earn
major revenue from the customer base who used online platform. In 2016, Walmart not only
acquired jet.com but the knowledge and expertise to deal others same type of competition in the
ecommerce industry like Amazon.com (Collis, Koning & Sun, 2018).
Amazon grew its market base rapidly with its pricing strategy. Nearly 70% to 90% of the
amazon goods were cheaper than Walmart goods considering all the items, which are delivered
at doorsteps. Amazon did this by establishing its most fulfillment centers in the urban locality,
which were near to the customer-based location. In 2017, Walmart faced tough competition from
amazon because of its low priced technique and wide product choices given to customers.
Amazon ecommerce sales were much higher than Walmart ecommerce sales. The use of Kiva
robots helped Amazon improve and upgrade its infrastructure and supply chain management.
Walmart ecommerce business was also doing well and it increased double the sales it did in the
year 2015 (Collis, Koning & Sun, 2018).
However, the growing customer base of Amazon put Walmart in a distress as it was
lagging behind in the race of popularity. Walmart started giving voice-shopping facility with the
help of Google express and Google home by collaborating with Google. Further, it collaborated
with Uber, Dely and Lyft to improve its logistic management to provide better home deliveries in

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the field of groceries. The grocery market was the strongest cash cow for the Walmart so it is
continuously trying to improve customer satisfaction through upgrading the logistics of grocery.
Amazon’ Alexa is helping customers to purchase monthly items but Walmart is giving them
options for different food items, which they always want to change as per their mood of choice.
Moreover, Walmart is always a tough competition for Amazon with its large number of
employees, physical stores, distribution area, trucks and trailers and pick up points.

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References and Bibliography
Collis, D., Wu, A., Koning, R., & Sun, H. C. (2018). Walmart Inc. takes on Amazon. com.
Havard Business School, 31(10), 1-30.
Zhu, F., & Liu, Q. (2018). Competing with complementors: An empirical look at Amazon. com.
Strategic Management Journal, 39(10), 2618-2642.