Digital Transformation: Walmart's Roadmap and Business Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Walmart's digital transformation journey. It begins by justifying the importance of digital transformation in the business context, emphasizing its role in enhancing customer engagement and market share. The report reviews the evolution and current state of digital issues within Walmart, utilizing Porter's Value Chain analysis to examine the company's competitive landscape and identify key digital challenges and opportunities. It then outlines a 10-step digital transformation roadmap, emphasizing the importance of senior management support, ambitious goal setting, and agile methodologies. The report critically evaluates the challenges Walmart faces, such as meeting customer expectations and organizational resistance to change, while also highlighting opportunities like digital disruption and enhancement in online shopping. The analysis includes discussions on big data and the Internet of Things. The report concludes by identifying digital tactics and strategies employed by Walmart to address these issues, providing a holistic view of the company's efforts to adapt and thrive in the digital age.

DIGITAL
TRANSFORMATION: A
ROADMAP

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1. Justification and ration of topic. .............................................................................................1
2. Description on review of evolution and current state of digital issues as per digital
transformation.............................................................................................................................1
3. Critical evaluation on challenges and opportunities of contemporary digital issues..............5
4. Description on analysis and discussion of digital issues affecting working of enterprise. ....7
Identification of digital tactics and strategies undertaken by business enterprise to address the
issues...........................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATION.................................................................................................................10
Future directions to contemporary digital issues. ....................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Digital transformation termed out as integration of digital technology in all areas of
business. Thus, it is defined as process that works as to frame strategies to have better changes
in enterprise. This empowers the employees with help of new tools and methodologies in terms
to create data driven strategies and innovation so that new product and services can be developed
(Parida, Sjödin and Reim, 2019 ). Furthermore, this aids to enterprise to leverage their digital
capabilities and take initiatives to maintain competitive advantage in market.
The present report is based on business activities of Walmart, American multinational
retail corporations that deals in department stores, electronics and grocery stores etc.
Moreover, report will cover the following topic as evolution and current state of digital
issues in firm, SWOT analysis to find out challenges and opportunities, Porter analysis in terms
to discuss digital issues affecting business organisation and business canvas model will be
applied to identify digital tactics and strategies taken by firm.
MAIN BODY
1. Justification and ration of topic.
The concept of digital transformation predominantly used in terms to business context.
Thus, it aids to bring new competencies and firm revolves around capacities to be more people
oriented, customer centric, streamlines, innovative and brings efficient opportunities to change
new information and service driven revenues (Marku and et.al., 2019). Therefore, it can be stated
that one of the main aim is to create the possibilities and opportunities of new technologies that
aids to bring varied innovative approaches.
Thus, reason behind choosing the topic as Digital transformation is to find creative ways
to modify their existing offering and to develop digital product and service. It is effective term in
order to maintain day to day operations that helps to make better strategic decision. Thus,
researcher can have depth knowledge regarding the usage of digital technology and it
transformation in business entities.
2. Description on review of evolution and current state of digital issues as per digital
transformation.
The number of companies are taking initiatives to undergoing digital transformation
because it aids to enhance market share, customer engagement and higher employee morale.
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Thus, Walmart is taking initiative to develop their business platform with digital transformation
but it also leads to have digital issues as lack of skilled people to lead digitization initiatives,
organisations structure, limited budget and ineffective digitization strategy. Thus, there is review
of evolution and current state of digital issues can be explained with help of model as Porters and
value chain analysis. Thus, it defined in following manner as-
Porter value chain analysis-
It is strategic management tool that aids to analyse the industry and aids to understand
underlying levers of profitability within enterprise. Thus, its defined as-
 Bargaining power of suppliers- Walmart is an entity that holds significant high market
share within the market. This entity provides major business to the suppliers as they sell
the units in bulk. In the modern scenario, the digital business is changing the nature of
competition. Due to the issue as size and scope of business walmart secures the lowest
price from their suppliers to sustain cost leadership competitive advantage.
 The entry of new competitors – Digital transformation aids to bring changes in the
nature of competition. By the use of digitalisation, the firm is leveraging towards social,
mobile, analytics and cloud technologies it helps to enhance the value proposition to
platform ( Imgrund and et.al., 2018). Therefore, digital based business model works as to
bring changes in the rules by lowering the traditional barrier to entry. It requires far less
capital and supports to bring large economies of scale. With help of enhancement of
digitalisation aids to capture maximum market share rather than competing for small
firms. In order to build sustainable differentiation, the quoted firm must have the use of
digital transformation.
 Threat of substitutes- It is very high in many industries as walmart as there is switching
cost are low and buyers propensity is quite high. With help of implementation of
digitalisation, the products can generate in market with unique features. Thus, innovation
add new features to product and issues relates with threat of substitute can be reduced.
 Bargaining power of buyers- This is term that impact the working of walmart at huge
context. Thus, digitalisation approach is helpful in order to identify the needs and
expectation of customers. By use of technical advancement, entity is able to bring
modified product and services that can attract the customers.
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 Rivalries among the existing competitors- From the past recent years, digitalised
transformation add fuel to fire by come up with e-business era. In modern scenario, the
new entrant do not need of any physical assets and infrastructure. Thus, entities works
with online business mode by simply connecting with stakeholders and provide
peripheral services with regard to enhance customer experience. In addition to it,
Walmart should start online marketing so that customer can have ease services and they
can also receive their needs at their foot step.
Hence, it can be concluded that Walmart should have the use of this model so that
approach as digitalisation can be implemented in well and effective manner.
Digital transformation model-
In moredern secnerio, the entities are finding new ways to modify exising offerings and
take inititives to develop digital products and services to keep the interst of customer of 21st
centurtay. For example- Grocery stores are fully embracing digital transformation with the
personal shopping services that allows customers to make selection as per their choices at their
own comfort at home. So, here 10 step to the digital transformation road map. Thus, its defined
in following manner as-
 Secure full support from senior management- Higher authorities in enterprise set the
tone at a company (Calvino and Criscuolo, 2019). It is priority to hold leaders and
employees at each department to know about the changes in terms to digitalised services.
Walmart senior authorities must support to their employees to understand the need of
digital transformation within firm so that better productivity and profitability can be
generated.
 Set ambitious goals- It can be stated that crystal clear goals aids the firm to take beyond
the expectation. Advanced digital tool aids to track daily task and helps to being more
effective in order to have long-term profitability (Crittenden, Crittenden and Crittenden,
2019).
 Allocation of funds- In order to be effective and efficient in business, the digitalisation
implementation will not be cheap. This requires huge investment and to keep with
transformation services the must have adequate resources so that advanced operation
activities can be performed.
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 Launching and accelerating digital transformation- At the initial level changes will be
tough to accept. In order to have proper plan and action the all things must be handled in
adequate manner.
 Initiative with lighthouse project- At the initial phase, it is crucial to have on-boarding
process and to implement workflow and automation software in order to collect the faster
revenue with help of accurate and reliable information.
Illustration 1: Digital transformation- Roadmap
(Source: The Ultimate Digital Transformation Roadmap: A Tactical Guide for
Corporate Innovation, 2018)
 Appoint a launch team- Walmart musty hire the chief digital officer and that person is
responsible to build the digital transformation team and also work as to coordinate with
existing department as they adopt digital workflows. Thus, hired person will provide
training to workers about the uses of advanced tools.
 Introduce new workflows- The way firm conduct their working is vital key to get
success in enterprise. With help of agile product development, test and learn method and
to analyse the needs and desires of customers. In this, the cross functional team can
become capable to pool specific expertise who has the knowledge of digitalisation
approach so that business working can be done on effective manner.
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 Nurture a digital culture- In the modern enterprise, culture is continually changing.
Thus, workers has started to work with collaboration, speed and autonomy. Hence,
enterprise must be sure that digital mind set parameters is all the way up to leadership
teams and also aids to continue deeper into digital transformation.
 Scaling digitalisation- At the prior stage of 18 months, Walmart must scale the process
of working (Wolf, Bartelheimer and Beverungen, 2019). Thus, evaluation must be taken
in order to find out the success to the enterprise. This is term that aids to ramp the things
up.
 Snow ball- In this, it can be stated that tracking return is very crucial to ensure all
available value. This is term that aids to reveal greater productivity by having
improvement in services of entity.
 Build capabilities- It is inclusive of sum of people, process and technical advancement in
order to attend certain goal of enterprise. By the use of building up high level strategies,
the firm can become capable to deal with competitors in market. In order to be effective,
the firm must work in more agility manner that aids to build effective cross functional
team.
 Adoption of agile methodology- At the time enterprise comes in the digital age called as
change. In order to attain the profitability, the enterprise need to accept the all change and
must perform their activities in agility manner so that better standard of working within
enterprise can be incorporated.
3. Critical evaluation on challenges and opportunities of contemporary digital issues.
Digital transformation is very crucial and firm is taking various initiative sin order to deal
with the changes. With regard to stay one step ahead, the enterprise are facing number of
challenges and opportunities as its defined in following manner as-
challenges-
1. To meet with customer expectation at digital age- In this, customer uses to do their
each little things with their mobile phones and they tend to always on. Thus, individuals
expect different experiences from firms (Schallmo and Williams, 2018). It became very
tough to understand the needs and desires of customers and provide the suitable services
as per their expectations in this digital age.
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2. Organisation resistance to change- the number of employee in the enterprise resist to
change as they think their working can be affected. They hesitated in order to accept the
changes. To implement the digital project is very vital to have success within the
enterprise. In order to be flexible with digitalisations approach, the authorities must
provide training opportunities so that they can able to carry out the operations of
enterprise.
3. Finding and keeping the people who can digitally transform the company- It has
always become typical to find out the right individual art the right job (The Biggest
Digital Challenges and Opportunities Facing Businesses Today, 2015). To find out the
person who has fully digitalised experience will become increasingly difficult. Thus, HR
of walmart must take initiatives to hire the suitable candidates to enterprise.
4. Big data- It is helpful terms as it aids to firm to work with new opportunities about
customers and enables them to personalise new product and services and also bring
change in development process in order to reflect the real wants of the customers.
Opportunities-
 Digital disruption from within- the disruption is one of the new game in this
competitive edge. In market, the number of individual comes with new digital approach
in order to beat them existing firm as Walmart must join them. By bringing up newer
version of services always aids to attracting the customers (Pflaum and et.al., 2019
Schallmo and Williams, 2018).
 Enhancement in online shopping- in this modern scenario the term as, we-brooming is
getting wider popularity. Thus, people uses to check the items online before buying them
in-store. Herein, online stores can't provide the knowledge.
 The internet of things- It is the service that helps to connecting people and devices in
terms to have rich possibilities for customer engagement. Thus, entities must have idea
that connected devices aids to provide more value to customers and more saving to them.
Thus, challenge and opportunities of Walmart must be identified with help of SWOT
framework. Therefore, its defined in following manner as-
Strength
 Walmart has well established brand
name and that can be easily recognised
Weakness
 This firm provide some products of
inferior quality and this impact the
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with most of the stores and revenue.
 This firm has achieved better economy
of scale in order to enhance the volume
of product they sell.
 Walmart is an entity that already
admired for technical advanced
information system in terms to order
tracking, customer relationship
management and inventory
information.
brand image.
 It is the enterprise that has high
employee turnover and lack of
motivation among existing employees
defined lack of social responsibilities
towards the workers of the enterprise
(Parida, Sjödin and Reim, 2019 ).
 It is the enterprise that has faced
numerous lawsuits in terms to treatment
of employees, discrimination, unequal
wages, unfair promotions and poor
benefits. This all affects the brand
reputation of the enterprise.
Opportunities
 Walmart has opportunity to offer
western goods in developing countries
that have more disposable income to
purchase new commodities.
 This is well established brand and this
firm can offer healthier eating to
customers with use of organic and
gluten free options.
 Quoted enterprise also has opportunity
to expand it operation to online store
and presence and that is inclusive of
emerging economies.
Threats
 Walmart is firm that is facing tough
competition and this is inclusive of
Target, Costco, Amazon, Tesco etc.
 The one of the threat is rising
commodities product prices due to
enhanced labour cost for manufacturing
the commodities, enhancement in raw
material cost and other issues enhance
the price of the commodities in the
market.
 Thus, increment in social threats and
local communities can lead to
negatively impact the brand reputation
of the enterprise.
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4. Description on analysis and discussion of digital issues affecting working of enterprise.
Contemporary digital issues as social networks, big data, data mining, cybercrimes,
internet of things and cloud computing are affecting the working of the enterprise at the greater
context (How digital business disrupts the five forces of industry competition, 2015). Hence, it can be stated
that advancement in digital technologies has raised number of ethical issues as privacy,
intellectual property and speed of dissemination allowed by digital advancement all have created
the new array of ethical problems. Herein, it can be true to stated that digital project are vital to
the future success of the enterprise but there is also issues in terms to funded, resource and
marketed (Marku and et.al., 2019). In addition to it, digitalised transformation needs change
management and it is time involving and costly process.
The one of the biggest challenge faced by the enterprise is meeting the expectation of
both customers and their employees. The enterprise needs to hire the skilled employees who can
easily operate the digitalised devices. In this modern scenario, the buying habits of the customer
also have been changed with the introduction of digital and mobile devices. In order to undergo
with better transformation, it efforts must be band aid but it is not possible to provide continual
changes that required by digital transformation (Imgrund and et.al., 2018). Furthermore, digital
technology termed out as vast amount of data that can be collected and stored. In addition to it,
this very typical to keep the data safe. Thus, one of the major issues of digitalisation is
infringement of data and it leads to impact the working performance. Thus, digitalisation affects
the overall working performance and sometimes it becomes the threat to the firm. In an
enterprise, the most of the individual do not have idea about operating digital techniques and in
this way they need to hire the skilled employees so that all thing can be done in systematic and
efficient manner. Thus, the advanced technology has created number of hackers and this can
disclose any crucial information about the working of the enterprise.
Identification of digital tactics and strategies undertaken by business enterprise to address the
issues.
In the era of digitalisation transformation, the firm is expanding to the higher rate of
growth. Thus, integration of digital technologies in all areas of business works as to change that
how firm should operate activities and deliver effective value to customers.
In order to have effective digital tactics and better strategies the firm needs to implement
business canvas model (Business Model Canvas, 2019). It supports to visualize that what is crucial
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and forces users to address the all key areas. This is strategic management tool that lean start-up
template for developing new and documenting advancing business models. Thus, this model has
defined with nine building blocks and explained in below contexted manner as-
 Key partners- in this, both kind of enterprise as start up and existing enterprise both are
crucial in terms to have creation of alliances with partners. Under this, knowledge about
the key partners must have in order to acknowledge that with whom the valuable relation
and process of digitalisation can be handled.
 Key activities- It supports to define that what are the unique strategies is avail in digital
transformational that aids to deliver its proposition to walmart. With help of having the
good and better knowledge of core activities of the enterprise and create good
understanding of value proposition within enterprise (Calvino and Criscuolo, 2019).
Implementation of digitalisation is one of problem solving approach. With help of using
business canvas model the better relation can be build with existing customers.
 Key resources- This is term with help of which firms need to performed their business
activities. It can be categorized into physical, intellectual, human and financial resources.
In addition to it, Walmart can implement the digitalisation transformation if they are
having all adequate resources to the enterprise. Furthermore, physical resources may be
inclusive of business equipments. Thus, intellectual resources includes things as
knowledge, brands and patents. Thus, financial resources includes source of income and
human resource and to execute the process the of digitalisation the firm needs to have
adequate resource so this process ca be undertaken effectively.
 Value proposition- It is one of the core to the company and it aids to meet customers
need. Thus, with proper implementation of digital transformation walmart can able to
distinguish itself from the competition. This is term that aids to focus towards the price,
services, speed and delivery conditions. After the execution of digitalisation, it is also
crucial to put consideration over quality, design, brand and customer experience.
 Customer relationships- Before, implementing the new technique within the enterprise
It is crucial to interact with customer so that their need and wants can be analysed well.
Thus, it is very crucial to divide customers into different target groups. With help of it,
the enterprise can invest in different needs by anticipating the needs of customers.
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Therefore, it can be state that the effective services aids to ensure good and stable
customer relationship.\
 Channels- The enterprise deals with communications, sales and distribution channels.
Thus, digitalised process will help to undertake the all activities effectively (Crittenden,
Crittenden and Crittenden, 2019). Therefore, it can be stated that channels to customers
have varied stages as awareness of product, purchase delivery and to conduct proper
evaluation. Thus, walmart is taking initiatives to provide better services to customers with
help of combination of online and offline channels to customers.
 Customer segment- The enterprise do not offer the services to only one group. It
provides services to may so works as to divide them into customer segments. With help
of proper identification of the needs they work as to geared towards the needs and
requirements. It is very helpful in order to lead the greater customer's satisfaction and it
aids to have good value proposition.
 Cost structures- with help of gaining depth and better insights into cost structure the
enterprise must have idea about the minimum turnover to make the profit. Hence, it can
be stated that cost structure must framed with help of focussing over things as economies
of scale. Variables cost and profit disadvantage etc. In addition to it, enterprise can opt
for deleting a number of key resources.
 Revenue streams- The revenue structure to the enterprise provides the clear insights
about the revenue model to the enterprise. This is term that aids to know that annual basis
to generate profit. Therefore, it can be stated that revenue streams are cost drivers. By
implementation of digitalised transformation, it can be possible to determine the revenues
generated with the use of technical tools and techniques.
CONCLUSION
Hereby, it can be concluded that digitalisation transformation is one of the profound
technique in enterprise and organisational activities, processes and competencies that accelerate
the growth within the society. It is kind of implementation of digital technique's into all area's
entity to build more sustainable relation and effective understanding of needs of the customers. It
helps to move forward the business and also aids to enhance the reputation of the enterprise. The
present report was based on the business activities of Walmart. This entity is taking initiative to
implement digital transformation at their platform.
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Furthermore, report has covered the things as comprehensive review of evolution and its
digital issues, discussion of issues that are affecting the working of enterprise, digital tactics and
strategies to address the issues so that firm can implement in well. Lastly, recommendation has
been given to implement digital transformation successfully.
RECOMMENDATION
On the basis of above report, the recommendation has been given to implement the
digital transformation effectively.
 Walmart must implement the process of digital transformational into all areas as it aids to
build more sustainable relationship and helps to understand the needs of customers.
 The digital approach must be adopted as it aids to bushiness transformation and aids to
cope up with the changing needs of markets.
 Digitalisation tranformation helps to consider the specific audience and identifying needs
of audience so it can be possible to deliver effective plan and to achieve proper marketing
objectives.
Future directions to contemporary digital issues.
In the modern era, the all companies are taking steps to be more digitalised so that
conduct proper function within enterprise. Thus, Walmart must integrate the digital
transformation technique's in their day to day business operations. This is term that aids to
analyse the needs and wants of customers. It can be true to said that digital storm is
fundamentally Changing the way of conducting business. In order to cope up with digital issues,
the firn need to make high security programmes so that they can cope up with obstacle of
disclosing private information of the company. Therefore, it is also crucial toprovide specialised
training to workers within the enterprise so that they can able to handle the digitalised techniques
in proper manner. Herein, it can be stated that to succeed in this disruptive environment, the
enterprise needs to offer new experience to the customers so that sustainability can be maintained
for longer period.
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