E-Business Strategy Migration Plan for Walmart Stores UK Development

This report provides a comprehensive migration plan for developing e-business capabilities at Walmart UK, addressing the research question of how e-business capabilities lead to innovation and profit improvement. It delves into the impacts and infrastructure changes resulting from e-business strategy implementation, including enhanced communication, economic information sharing, and improved decision-making processes. The report also examines the benefits of integrating e-commerce, such as efficient information flow, reduced transaction costs, and enhanced customer engagement through initiatives like the Sam's Club-Instacart partnership. The analysis includes suggestions for measuring these benefits, focusing on real-time information for suppliers, price comparisons for customers, and comprehensive product guides, ultimately aiming to provide Walmart with a competitive edge in the retail market. Desklib offers more solved assignments and resources for students.

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A migration plan to develop e-business strategy for Walmart stores UK
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Research question
In the recent years, there has been extensive research which has been directed to the dynamic
fields of the e-service computing, digital information management as well as the context
management for the smart environment (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). There have been extensive
investigations which have been focused to the numerous challenging problems which are related
to this field, thus resulting to the usage and the application of other crucial technological such as
e-business strategy (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). Strategic considerations as well as actions are
important for the business in the retail industry to implement on the e-business successfully and
continuous improvement (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). Nonetheless, focusing on one concept is
not sufficient to the retail organizations in the formulating of their e-business strategy due to the
fragmented needs as well as requirement that are within the organizations. To address on this
organization needs and the requirements, an e-business strategy will be incorporated with
numerous elements which lies on the strategy. Thus, in this study it will discuss on the migration
plan for the development of the e-business capability for the Walmart organization. The research
question for this research study is as follows;
 How does the e-business capability lead to the innovation to Walmart organization and
how it has helped them to improve on the profit within the business?
The research question above is aimed to measure how the e-business capability which has been
adopted by the Walmart organization has enhanced on their business in terms of the profits. The
organizations have wanted to venture in to the e-business capability by getting a reliable site so
that they could market on their products to the customers (Bandara and Pathiratne, 2017). This
requires tools and technologies which are crucial to the maintenance. Through this question it

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would highlight all the aspects of the customer to ensure they are fully satisfied with the service
Wal-Mart stores are offering. to the above question it carries numerous facts such as feasibility
of this e-business capability, aspects of the security and how friendly it would be to the customer
to purchasing process on what they want (Barse, Stella, Pritam and Suraj, 2016). This question
raises many aspects such as security protocol employed how to secure customer data,
enhancement to the customer satisfaction and the overall growth to the business.
Research method/plan
The research method which has been used in this research it aims to solve the question which has
been highlighted above section. To solve this question, empirical method would be used where it
would utilize secondary data for the analysis techniques. The data gathered is qualitative analysis
from the secondary sources such as articles, journals, books and reports which has done case
study on this organization.
Management Report
Introduction
The business community over the past decade has been characterized by the debate over value or
perhaps effectiveness to the e-commerce and how this technology could be implemented
(Ghezzi, Mangiaracina and Perego, 2012). During the period the business world has witnessed
various examples to the success of the e-business strategy. When an organization is functioning
on the e-commerce platform it could change on the way they operate which leads to the growth
of the business significantly (Ghezzi, Mangiaracina and Perego, 2012). The concept of the E-
business has significantly changed on the way the business operates and this has presented
numerous opportunities to many organizations since it has been able to attain competitive

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advantage over the rival organization especially in the retail business (Hirt and Willmott, 2014).
In this report, it will discuss the various aspects on the e-business strategy that Wal-Mart
organization is adopting. Moreover, the research would also analyse on the effect of the e-
commerce strategies which are employed in the organization to enhance on their performance.
The utilization of the e-business capability that enhance productivity of Wal-Mart organization
along with improvement of the customer participation.
Background of Wal-Mart organization
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is a multinational retail organization which runs large discounts
superstores as well as warehouses( Ghezzi, Mangiaracina and Perego, 2012). The organization
was founded less than 50 years ago by Walton and his brother Bud in Bentonville USA (Ghezzi,
Mangiaracina and Perego, 2012). The organization has sales over 300 million billion a year and
has been regarded as the world most valuable organization. The business is the largest employer,
which has more than one million employees across the world (Hirt and Willmott, 2014). The
business has more than 5000 stores globally, and eighty percent of this are in the USA. This
organization makes more business than their competitors such as Home Depot, Kmart, and
Safeway all combined (Hirt and Willmott, 2014). The organization provides general
merchandise such as family apparel, health beauty aids, toys, fabrics lawn and garden shoes and
the jewelry. Additionally, the organization runs a pharmacy departments and the proto
processing center.

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Figure 1: The official Logo of Wal-Mart stores, Inc. (Hirt and Willmott, 2014)
The organization has a simple vision which is “to be the best retailer in the heart and minds of
both the customers and the workers’’. The company aims to attain the top position in the retail
sector and based to their current situation they have already fulfilled on the aspect of the best
retailer which is part of the vision. In UK the organization is the second largest supermarket. The
organization has surpassed the sales of supermarket such as Tesco, Sainsbury which are the
major competitors in the UK market.
Impacts on the Walmart and changes to infrastructure
When the organization implement on the e-business strategy to their operation it would have
significant impact to the changes on the way they carry their duty (Barse, Stella, Pritam and
Suraj, 2016). On the aspect of the communication aspect it would lead to an effective
communication flow. The data would flow effectively from the customer to the organization in
the delivery of the products and services and any issue would be addressed faster (Galliers and
Leidner, 2014). The integration to the e-commerce would also lead to the economic information
sharing as well as the economic sharing this leads to the improvement in the business functions
such as reduction of the delays, reduction on the errors especially in the procurements and
enhancement to the process of making the decisions (Barse, Stella, Pritam and Suraj, 2016). This
is what we regard as the business performance enhancement through the integration of the e-
commerce platform to the business.
Through the system there would efficient flow of the information which are related to the
products, discount offered to the customers and the price changes and this would enhance on
much faster transmission to the information that is free from the errors compared to the

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traditional mechanisms used in the transmission (Hirt and Willmott, 2014). In this technological
era has seen information being transferred electronic through the different medium, thus the
process of ordering the products and the services from the organization would become much
easier to this business. the major benefit to the integration of the e-business capability strategy is
to enhance on the processes of the procurement and at the same time standardizing on the
procedures to trade through use of the computerized technology. There is reduction on the errors
and the delays which were exhibited earlier and this would give the organization a competitive
edge over the other organization which have not implemented on the same (Hannak, Soeller,
Lazer, Mislove and Wilson, 2014). It would also be easier for the customer to easily compare on
the prices of different products to the other businesses through the use of this new e-commerce
application and this would enhance also on the distribution system which entails that the
requirement of the customers need to be met (Shemi and Proctor, 2013). Through electronic
sharing and the enhanced site capability to this platform would enhance the process of making
decision.
The integration of the e-business to this organization it would improve on the operations of the
business to all the documentation activities to the digital aspects (Galliers and Leidner, 2014).
Moreover, it is also expected that the electronic networks would help in the management of the
flow to the information in order to offer unique qualities to the services within Walmart
organization (Galliers and Leidner, 2014). This new system would transform on the current
services as well as model within the business in a manner that is unique (Shiang, Halin and
CheeWhye, 2016). The usage of the e-commerce technology has significant to this business in
the sense that it would reduce on the transaction and most of the transactional cost which were
previously exhibited in the business.

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The e-commerce technology that is being integrated would help link the client and it would offer
brand new online services to the clients (Shiang, Halin and CheeWhye, 2016). This would
definitely create a strong relationship with the clients through lowering on the operational cost
and authentic to all the data in relation to the products within the organization to the customer.
The customers would be aware on all the products which enable them to compare with the other
online business and make the right decision when they are purchasing (Hirt and Willmott, 2014).
This online platform it would facilitate on the e-commerce strategies which would assist in the
locating of the crucial resources along with the products and the services which could match on
the requirements of the customers.
Sam club-instacart card
Walmart inc. has been keeping an eye on the augmenting of the e-commerce business and this
has been evident from their latest venture which combines on the Sam’s Club with the Instacart
which offers same day delivery services (Lapoule and Colla, 2016). This e-business strategy
would help them on their online shopping vertical offering of the furniture and the home décor
products which they are offering (Lapoule and Colla, 2016). With the effort listed to their e-
commerce expansion plan, the organization seems to have a well placed to lock horn with their
competitors such as Amazon.com and this would accelerate their online sales growth (Lapoule
and Colla, 2016).
The Sam’s club is the warehouse chain as well as vital unit to the Walmart organization. This
club card would substantially boost on the sales of the food products as well as each day
essentials via the partnership with the Instacart (Lapoule and Colla, 2016). When the customer
shop using the Sam Club card they would get their order delivered to their doorstep within an

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hour time. The instacart has the aspect of the same day delivery services, and shopping with this
card is expected to be more enticing to the clients.
Major benefits, with suggestions for how to measure them
This organization would get numerous benefits some of which are associated to the customers as
well as others are on the suppliers (Malhotra, 2014). On the part of the suppliers, they would be
able to meet on the needs of the organization since they would get the information to the real
time limit on the products and the services. This would be a major advantage on the part of the
organization since it would help in the process to make the decision (Lodha, 2017). Through the
research the customers would be able to compare the prices with other organization thus this
ensures there is bargaining power for their products.
This ecommerce strategy has ensured that the customers could view on the different type of the
products in regards to their characteristics and all the other aspect; they are also able to view on
the prices and ask for the discounts before they could place any orders (Lodha, 2017). The e-
business strategy for the Walmart organization would provide the customers with a complete
guide on all the products they have and this is an effective marketing tool for their product
(Shiang, Halin and CheeWhye, 2016).
Through the e-business strategy Walmart stores would create products and services that are
tailored on the needs and requirements of the customers (Lodha, 2017). Moreover, this strategy
would enhance on the relationship between the suppliers and the customers which would help
them gather data on them in relation to their buying pattern which would help determine on what
they would supply to the organization since it is what the customers wants (Huang and
Benyoucef, 2013).

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Another benefit of this e-commerce platform form is that it would be running 24/7 this means
that there are personnel employed by Walmart to address all the customers queries and
requirements in terms of the products and services they would want ( Omondi and Mbugua,
2017). This ensures that the business is running all throughout and this would definitely increase
on the sales of this organization to a great extent (Magnusson and Sjöberg, 2014). This is also an
added advantage on the part of the customers since they are able to choice a wide variety of the
products with a price that is good (Shiang, Halin and CheeWhye, 2016). All these changes which
the organization would make will ensure that the loyalty to these customers is maintained
because they would get a high quality product and excellent services would be maintained in the
organization.
Another benefit to this organization is that they would know the customer feedback quickly on
how they view them, issues they are encountering which would enable them to address them
effectively (Shiang, Halin and CheeWhye, 2016). Moreover, this would be an effective way to
which the organization would be able to address on the issues that are raised by the customers
quickly.
The e-commerce would enable the organization to scale up much easily on the physical retailer
as they are not bound on the physical limitations such as the inventory storage space (Shiang,
Halin and CheeWhye, 2016). It is important to note that the logistics could get tougher as they
grow more, but with is this new platform they would able to scale up on the logistics (Oshima
et.al 2018). The e-commerce would also be efficient to the business since it allows them to
capture on the contact details of the customers in terms of the email, by sending out the
automated as well as customized emails so easily. Moreover, this business and the metrics would
allow for the supervisors store customization through using of the cookies as well as other

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methods in order to monitor on the behavior of their clients (Shiang, Halin and CheeWhye,
2016).
Since the entire supply chain would be linked to the business to business e-commerce systems,
the aspects of the procurements become much faster, transparent as well as cheaper since there is
no need to handle the currency notes or the cash, and this could cut to a great extent the costs and
the opportunity to the accounting errors which were seen previously (Liu, 2015).
It is important to note that the e-commerce platform would ensure that the organization can track
the logistics (Patil and Divekar, 2014). This is a key component to a successful e-commerce
organization as well as sells low volume goods. In most of the cases the conventional retails used
to focus on the stocking fast moving products, the economies of the e-commerce would allow the
slow moving goods and even the obsolete products which are to be incorporated to the catalog
(Patil and Divekar, 2014).
Major risks, with strategies to avoid or minimize them
When integrating the e-commerce platform to their business it would likely encounter risk just
like any other application some of the major risks associated with the platform are as follows;
Security and credit risks: These are the major risks when dealing with the online shopping. The
consumers would run the risk of identity fraud as well as other hazard as their personal
information are captured by the e-commerce businesses while they run the risk of the phishing
attacks as well as other forms of the security fraud, both could suffer from the credit and the card
fraud. As a result to this the customers might fear their inability to identify scams and the
scammers, which means that the site has to be extraordinary protected and also verified to enable
the customers to trust using the platform (Hübner, Kuhn and Wollenburg, 2016). On the aspect

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of the security risks it was important to note today the hackers are using various attacks which
they are using to steal the customer data such as DDoS and the man in the Middle attack
(Hübner, Kuhn and Wollenburg, 2016). It is important for the organization to address on this
issue since it can reduce the customer trust and they would not buy products from them.
There is the application risks: The is multiplicity cost associated with the integration of the
application such as regulations and taxation costs which comes to the opening on the e-
commerce site, and some of the regulators are not clear in regards to the implication of the tax to
the e-commerce transactions which is true if the sellers and the buyers are in various territories
(Hübner, Kuhn and Wollenburg, 2016). Additionally, there is a challenge of running this
technology without any issue, but the risks comes when there are no personnel skilled enough to
operate the system and this could result to the application getting spoilt (Solaymani, Sohaili and
Yazdinejad, 2012). When they are not trained the system could get spoilt considering the cost
associated to setting it up and the regulation and taxes it has encountered.
Strategies to address on the risks
They are various strategy which could be implemented to address on the risks which have been
highlighted above these are as follows;
To address on the first risk which is on the security and the credit card Walmart stores
organization need to use new advanced security tools and programs to ensure that the site is
secure they could use antivirus and firewalls as well as other intrusion system which are used to
detect an attack before it happened or block it (Lodha, 2017). Moreover, the organization need to
implement encrypting tools which would ensure that the customer and organization data are
secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorized individual.

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On the risk associated to this application it is crucial to the business to provide the training and
education to the workers to ensure they learn how the site work, through this they can easy adopt
to it without causing any damage to it and ensure it is running smoothly in addressing on the
customer queries and orders on time.
Conclusion
In this report it has carried an evaluation to the e-business strategy being integrated by the
Walmart stores, Inc in UK. The report has finalized on all the aspects and concluded that
migrating to this new system by the organization would enhance on their operation and enable
them to increase on the sales which result to increase in the profits. The system is user friendly to
the customers thus they would not encounter any issues in the ordering process and there are
employees in place to address on their every need in case they get stuck. This shows the
organization is employing customer centric approach in their operations and this would
positively impact on their business. In the report it has also discussed on the risks they would
encounter and how the strategy to use to mitigate them. This is an important step the
organization is taking and through it adaptation it would help them remain at the top in the retail
industry.

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