Since San Walton opened his first store in 1962, Walmart has grown into a global retailer with more than 4,000 store in the United States and more than 6,000 internationally. Walmart is comprised of three business segments, Walmart US, Walmart International and Sam’s Club. Walmart Global eCommerce works across all three segments. Walmart’s mission statement “We save people money so they can live better”, is not indicative of where its strategic focus areas are, but it does sound good for the average customer who has a limited budget. This mission statement leads directly into Walmart Global eCommerce goals which include combining online, social innovations with physical stores to give consumers “anywhere, anytime shopping experience” in addition to its organizational sustainability goal of creating zero waste, using only sustainable energy and selling products that sustain the environment which is important to all of Walmart’s segments including eCommerce. Walmart’s overall objective is to deliver shareholder value by increasing earnings per share, returns and maintaining strong stable returns on investment.
According to Walmart CEO, Mike Duke, Walmart’s strategic focus areas are:
•Making sure the company has the best retail talent at every level of the organization by recruiting, developing and retaining the best associates;
•Delivering on the productivity loop that enables Walmart to operate for less so the company can drive prices even lower for its customers
•Being even more disciplined about operating expenses and capital spending;
•Investing to serve more customers globally and accelerating the vision of anytime, anywhere access by bringing together best-in-class online, mobile and social capabilities and our more than 10,700 stores; and
•Benefiting our communities and having a world class compliance organization.
Walmart has been a giant of