Business Environment Analysis: A PESTEL Study of Wal-Mart's Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive PESTEL analysis of Wal-Mart's business environment, examining the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors that impact the company's operations and strategies. The analysis reveals how political factors influence Wal-Mart's business decisions, especially regarding lobbying and international expansion. Economic factors, such as currency exchange rates and labor costs, significantly affect revenue and profitability. Social factors, including consumer spending habits and preferences for store layouts, play a crucial role in Wal-Mart's retail strategy. Technological advancements, such as automation and online marketing, offer opportunities for increased efficiency and revenue growth. Environmental considerations drive sustainability initiatives to minimize the company's environmental impact. Finally, legal factors necessitate compliance with various laws and regulations, particularly concerning labor practices and food safety. The report concludes that a thorough understanding of these external factors is essential for Wal-Mart to navigate the complexities of its business environment and achieve sustainable success. Desklib provides access to similar reports and study tools for students.

Running head: BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
Business Environment
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Executive Summary
The intention of the repot is the analysis of MACRO environmental factors of the business of
Walmart, a famous American retail corporation. In order to achieve this objective, the report has
applied the technique of PESTEL analysis for taking into consideration the effects of each
external environmental factor on the business operations of Walmart.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
MACRO Environment Analysis of Wal-Mart.................................................................................3
P - Political Factors......................................................................................................................4
E - Economic Factors...................................................................................................................4
S - Social Factors.........................................................................................................................5
T - Technological Factors............................................................................................................5
E - Environmental Factors...........................................................................................................6
L - Legal Factors..........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Every business organization operates in a business environment and the requirement for
the business organizations is to take into account the effects and impacts of the business
environmental factors for the organizational success. These factors are considered as the
MACRO environmental factors or the external environmental factors. These are the
uncontrollable elements or factors and have major influence on the decision-making process,
performance and business strategies (Baker, 2014). The presence of different types of tools can
be seen for the analysis of these external environmental factors; and one of these major tools is
PESTEL Analysis. PESTEL analysis is regarded as a special framework and is used for
scanning the external macro environment of the business organizations. All the letters of
PESTEL stand for political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors
(Kennedy, 2016). The main aim of the report is the analysis of the MACRO environmental
factors of a specific business organization. For the purpose of this report, Walmart Inc., USA is
taken into consideration. Walmart Inc. (Walmart) is an American multinational retail company
having operations in the in a chain of discout department stores, grocery stores and
hypermarkets.
MACRO Environment Analysis of Wal-Mart
It can be seen from the above dicusison that this report involves in the MACRO
environmental analysis of Walmart with the help of PETEL analysis; and the analysis is shown
below:

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P - Political Factors
The inclusion of some government and other factors can be seen in the political factors
and these factors have major impact on the companies like Walmart as it is trying to operate both
nationally and internationally. The interference of Walmart can be seen with the political factors
due to the large size as well as significant of the United States (US) economy. In the year 2013, it
was discovered that Walmart was involved in the process to convince the employees for making
political contribution and the reason was to gain positive political impact. In addition, Walmart is
considered among the top 100 political donors from the year 1989 (prospect.org, 2018). These
factors indicate towards the impact of political factors on the business of Walmart. In addition, at
the time of international expansion, it is needed for Walmart to take into consideration some of
the major political aspects like stability of the economy, economic growth in the country, rate of
employment and others. All these external political factors have impact on the business of
Walmart.
E - Economic Factors
There are some major economic factors having effects on the revenue and profit of
Walmart either directly or indirectly. For example, the currency exchange rate between US and
other countries can be considered as a major economic factor having effect on the profit of the
company. In the fourth quarter of the year 2015, the revenue of Walmart increased by 2.4% to
$81.5 billion. However, 9.7% decline in the US current offset this revenue that led to the decline
of revenue to $32.7 billion. This whole aspect created a negate effect of $4.7 billion due to the
fluctuation in foreign currency exchange (Tenebruso, 2016). For Walmart, cost of labor can be
considered as another major economic factor as many criticized Walmart for the low wage rate
to their labors. For example, Walmart had to raise the minimum wage rate to $9 per hour in April

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2015 and this affected the earnings of the company by 2% in the second quarter of 2015. Apart
from these, some other economic factors having impact on the business of Walmart are change in
tax rate, unemployment rate, change in rate of inertest, rate of inflation and others.
S - Social Factors
Social factors are considered as crucial external environmental factors for the business
operations of as these factors have influence on consumer preference and perception. The
presence of certain social factors can be seen for the business of Walmart. The spending habit of
the customers of US is a major social factor for the company that is influenced by the present
economic condition of the country (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2017). At the time of global financial
crisis, due to the presence of massive unemployment, the focus of the common people shifted to
the retail products with lowe price. In this situation, Walmart was able in gaining the customer’s
focus due to the discounted price they offered. Another major social factor for the retail business
of Walmart is the preference of the consumers related to the layout of the retail stores. It needs to
be mentioned that Walmart uses to change the layout the retail stores as per the demand of the
customers with the aim to ease the shopping experience for them. Some of the other social
factors for Walmart are the trend for health lifestyle, cultural diversity and urban migration
(Gifford & Nilsson, 2014).
T - Technological Factors
Technological factor is considered as another major external environmental factor having
impact on the business operations of Walmart. The introduction of new technology has been
majorly helpful for the retail companies like Walmart in increasing their business efficiency. For
example, with the assistance of new advanced technology, Walmart has been able in doing
research and development in different aspects of retail industry (Gillespie and Riddle 2015). The

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increased improvement in the automation technology in the retail industry is providing the
company with great opportunities in the process of business expansion outside the boundary of
US. Some other major technological external factors having impact on the business operations of
Walmart are increased technological development in business automation, analysis of big data
with the assistance of improved technology, increased usage of the mobile devises among the
customers and others. In order to take advantage of all of these technological factors, it is needed
for Walmart to increase their investment in these areas of technology. Most importantly, the
introduction of online marketing and online selling has majorly increased the revenue of the
company (Zeriti et al., 2014).
E - Environmental Factors
Environmental factors are considered crucial external environmental factors for the
companies and it is related to the adoption of environmental friendly business practices
conducted by the business organizations. Over the decade, it can be observed that Walmart has
taken into consideration different kinds of sustainability initiatives with the aim to minimize the
effects of their business operations on the environment and society (Armstrong et al., 2014). For
example, Walmart has taken a major sustainability initiative with the aim to reduce the amount
of waste from their business activities. In the present years, climate change is a major issue for
the business organizations and the companies are needed to consider this matter with utmost
importance. For this reason, Walmart has taken some of the major sustainability related
initiatives with the aim to fight with the issue of climate change. Apart from these, some other
environmental factors that Walmart have considered are environment friendly products, business
sustainability trend and others (Armstrong et al., 2015). Apart from this, it is one of the major
sustainability related responsibility of Walmart to disclose the information about their

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sustainability as well as environmental initiative within the integrated annual report. Walmart
must consider all these aspects related to environmental external factors.
L - Legal Factors
Legal factors are crucial external environmental factors and it is needed for the retail
companies to remain compliant with the required laws and regulations while conducting the
business operations. It can be observed from the history of Walmart that the company had to
suffer from large number of lawsuits related to the labor force (Achroll & Kotler, 2014). Apart
from this, different types of legal issues made the situation difficult for Walmart like the
discrimination of low wages and others. For this reasons, in the recent years, the main focus of
Walmart is to develop better working conduction by complying with the required rules and
regulations. Some of the major regulations and laws with which Walmart has complied are the
food safety regulation, taxation law reformation, employment regulations, workplace health and
safety and others. It is needed for Walmart to consider all these aspects in the environmental
factors (Kotler, Kartajaya & Setiawan, 2016).
Conclusion
It can be observed from the above discussion that all the six elements of PESTEL have
their impact on the business operations of Walmart. The analysis of policitical factors states that
Walmart has been interfering with the politics of US in order to gain favorable business
condition. The presence of some economic factor affects the business operations of Walmart like
rate of interest, inflations, currency exchange difference and others. At the same time, social
factors like the preference and choice of the customers have impact on the business operations of
Walmart. The above discussion also states that the improved technology as well as automation

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has been a major help for the business operations of Walmart. In addition, due to the increased
concern about different sustainability and environmental issues, Walmart has undertaken certain
initiatives for addressing the environmental and sustainability issues. Lastly, Walmart has to face
certain difficulties while complying with many regulations and laws.

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References
Achroll, R. S., & Kotler, P. (2014). The service-dominant logic for marketing. The service-
dominant logic of marketing: Dialog, debate, and directions, 320.
Armstrong, G., Adam, S., Denize, S., & Kotler, P. (2014). Principles of marketing. Pearson
Australia.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction.
Baker, M. J. (2014). Marketing strategy and management. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Gifford, R., & Nilsson, A. (2014). Personal and social factors that influence pro‐environmental
concern and behaviour: A review. International Journal of Psychology, 49(3), 141-157.
Gillespie, K. and Riddle, L., 2015. Global marketing. Routledge.
How Walmart and Home Depot Are Buying Huge Political Influence. (2018). The American
Prospect. Retrieved 6 October 2018, from http://prospect.org/article/how-walmart-and-
home-depot-are-buying-huge-political-influence
Kennedy, A. M. (2016). Macro-social marketing. Journal of Macromarketing, 36(3), 354-365.
Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H., & Setiawan, I. (2016). Marketing 4.0: Moving from traditional to
digital. John Wiley & Sons.
Schaltegger, S., & Wagner, M. (2017). Managing the business case for sustainability: The
integration of social, environmental and economic performance. Routledge.

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Tenebruso, J. (2016). Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Slashes Sales Outlook -- The Motley Fool. The
Motley Fool. Retrieved 6 October 2018, from
https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/19/wal-mart-stores-inc-slashes-sales-
outlook.aspx
Zeriti, A., Robson, M.J., Spyropoulou, S. and Leonidou, C.N., 2014. Sustainable export
marketing strategy fit and performance. Journal of International Marketing, 22(4), pp.44-
66.