IT Influence on Business Strategy: A Case Study of Walmart and Amazon

This case study provides a comparative analysis of Walmart and Amazon, highlighting the differences in their business models and strategies. Amazon, primarily an online retailer, focuses on expanding product selection, building strategically located warehouses, and offering same-day delivery. Walmart, with both physical and virtual presence, has invested heavily in e-commerce and acquired tech firms to enhance its online capabilities. The study examines the role of information technology in both businesses, noting Amazon's reliance on IT for all operations and Walmart's use of IT to create online portals and applications like Endless Aisle. Ultimately, the case study suggests that both companies are influenced by each other's strategies, with Amazon expanding warehousing and Walmart moving towards e-business solutions, both leveraging IT to implement these changes.

Running head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Case Study Analysis
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
1. Analysis of the case study comparing Walmart and Amazon's business models and
business strategies..............................................................................................................2
2. Thee role that information technology plays in each of these businesses and describe
the role of the various IT professionals involved in this case............................................3
3. How IT helps influence Walmart and Amazon's organizational strategies...................4
References..........................................................................................................................5

2CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
1. Analysis of the case study comparing Walmart and Amazon's business models and
business strategies
Comparison between business strategy: The business strategy of Walmart and
Amazon are very different from each other. Where Amazon is identified as one of the
primary business organizations in the world that operate exclusively over online existence,
Walmart enjoys both physical and virtual existence (Kumar, 2017). The business strategy for
Amazon has been developed to expand the selection of their goods, build warehouses that are
closer to the urban centres to help faster delivery of the purchased good over the web and
mobile application and expand the use of same day delivery services. On the other hand,
Walmart has also expanded its business over time to enjoy both e-commerce applications and
the physical stores available to the customers. With changing time, Walmart recognised the
need of online business facilities and has been found to invest more than 300 million USD to
acquire five tech firms that helps the organization in investing into a feasible online business
(Singireddy & Daim, 2018).
Comparison between the business models: Amazon is a renowned organization
around the world that is known universally for its online services, recognized as the world’s
largest e-commerce business. The organization specializes in being exclusively set up
virtually through mobile and web applications. The customers make their purchases through
the applications and there are only physical existences of the warehouses so that the
purchased items can be delivered to the customers from the warehouses (Pham, Pham &
Pham, 2016). Walmart, on the other hand is a more recognized brand than Amazon, having a
significantly larger physical existence and also being renowned for selling the items at the
lowest prices possible and the company is ready to sell items at every possible sized. The
prices are so low that it has the potential to make the company to crumble, but the business

3CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
model makes the organization sell the items at large quantities to the customers, from where
it makes the most money.
2. Thee role that information technology plays in each of these businesses and describe
the role of the various IT professionals involved in this case
Role of Information Technology in the business of Amazon: Amazon is
exclusively based up on the IT for the business operations. Out of many, three of the major
role of IT as identified for the business of Amazon can be listed as follows:
 IT supports the business strategy for Amazon and helps in the latest business
strategy for expanding the selection of good to be as exhaustive as Walmart.
 IT helps amazon in expanding the selling of goods through a third party
through the Website and expand the product selection.
 IT has enhanced the business model for Amazon, since now Amazon has just
not confined in selling products from third parties, but has also initiated selling
automated products like Fire Phone and Fire TV Stick to have their own
manufactured products with high-end technology for the customers.
Role of Information Technology in the business of Walmart: Out of various
others, the three major roles of IT in the business of Walmart can be described as the
following:
 Walmart has been trying to cope up with the competition exerted by the other
online retail businesses and has decided to bring up their own online portal for
the customers by implementing e-business technologies, this is a major role
that IT plays in the business of Walmart for making it go through the added
website presence (Winn, 2016).

4CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
 Endless Aisle is an application that Walmart is trying to introduce to the
customers for them to immediately order from Walmart using their
smartphones if any item goes out of stock with Pay in Cash opportunities
which is a major role that IT plays in the organizational strategy systems.
 IT has also enabled the organization in using up of the Amazon’s Subscribe
and Save program to be unaffected by the other competitors like Amazon,
which is enabled by IT.
Role of IT professionals involved: Both Amazon and Walmart has used the IT
professional involved in the business process. Amazon has numerous coders and engineers
working behind the entire business (Wu & Gereffi, 2018). On the other hand, the
organization of Walmart has immediately implemented investments over 300 million USD so
that they can acquire tech firms and use their coders and for the business strategies that
Walmart is introducing in the business to adopt e-business facilities.
3. How IT helps influence Walmart and Amazon's organizational strategies
According to the presented case study, it can easily be understood that both Amazon
and Walmart has considered each other as competition and thus both are trying to implement
the business strategy for each other to include them in their business (Zhu & Liu, 2018). Both
the organization is implementing the business strategy inspired by each other, like Amazon is
expanding its business warehousing to increase the product availability, whereas, Walmart is
moving to implement e-business and even an application called Endless Aisle so that the
customers can order their required products even if the product goes out of stock. Therefore,
both these strategies use IT technologies and is influenced by IT services to implement the
same in their business.

5CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
References
Kumar, A. (2017). Technological Advancements Changing the Traditional Applications of
Operations Management. In Proceedings of the International Annual Conference of
the American Society for Engineering Management. (pp. 1-10). American Society for
Engineering Management (ASEM).
Pham, T., Pham, D. K., & Pham, A. (2016). From Business Strategy to Information
Technology Roadmap: a practical guide for executives and board members.
Productivity Press.
Singireddy, S. R. R., & Daim, T. U. (2018). Technology Roadmap: Drone Delivery–Amazon
Prime Air. In Infrastructure and Technology Management (pp. 387-412). Springer,
Cham.
Winn, J. K. (2016). The secession of the successful: The rise of Amazon as private global
consumer protection regulator. Ariz. L. Rev., 58, i.
Wu, X., & Gereffi, G. (2018). Amazon and Alibaba: Internet Governance, Business Models,
and Internationalization Strategies. In International Business in the Information and
Digital Age (pp. 327-356). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Zhu, F., & Liu, Q. (2018). Competing with complementors: An empirical look at Amazon.
com. Strategic Management Journal, 39(10), 2618-2642.