E-Commerce and Globalization: Wal-Mart, Essay Example

“Wal-Mart’s online experience is proof that success in the brick and mortar world doesn’t create corresponding success in e-commerce,” (E-commerce guide, 2002). Being a top dog in retail in the United States with millions of employees and customers, Wal-Mart is far from the leading positions of eBay and Amazon online. Wal-Mart is selling hundreds of products on its website, including books, toys, music, and various appliances and is taking advantage of the brand awareness. Moreover, customers have an opportunity to rate and review products and good sold on the website. This feature allows managers to collect reviews, data, and information about the products offered by Wal-Mart and plan upgraded and new products and services. “We will use those customer reviews and ratings to be able to provide more direct information about how our customers feel and make decision on a case-by-case basis,” (BizReport, 2007). An amazing integration that can be viewed on Wal-Mart.com is its connection to the physical local Wal-Mart stores. Any item bought online can be returned to the local store, medicine prescriptions can be ordered online and picked at the nearest Wal-Mart, an appliance unavailable in the physical shop most likely can be purchased online. This integration is tightly connected with Operations Management as far as managers have to be aware of the situation and acknowledge objectives for both physical and online stores. “With the power of this integration, leveraging its massive offline presence to compliment its e-commerce operation, it may not matter that Walmart.com lags its online rivals” (E-commerce guide, 2002).

References

E-commerce guide. (2002, November). Case study: Walmart.com. Retrieved July 9, 2009, from http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/news/trends/article.php/1501651

BizReport. (2007, July). Walmart.com launches product review feature. Retrieved July9, 2009, from http://www.bizreport.com/2007/07/walmartcom_launches_product_review_feature.html