This Walmart SWOT analysis reveals how the largest company in the world uses its competitive advantages to dominate and successfully grow in the retail industry. It identifies all the key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that affect the company the most. Walmart has become the world’s largest company by revenue for a few reasons. First, it used cost leadership strategy and executed it brilliantly. Second, it operated in the world’s richest economy, which enabled Walmart to grow fast and successfully. At the moment, most of Walmart’s strengths come from the huge company’s size. These strengths, such as market power over suppliers and competitors, well developed distribution system and large merchandise selection, will help the company to stay the largest retailer, at least the largest brick-and-mortar retailer, for quite some time. Nonetheless, the company has to find other strengths if it wants to grow faster and be able to compete with Amazon.com in e-commerce. As for the weaknesses, Walmart should improve its brand image, employment and business practices. That would most likely result in more productive employees, happier customers and eventually in higher sales. Walmart will continue to dwarf the U.S. retail industry and will grow internationally, at least for the next 5-10 years.

1. WALMART INC.
SWOT ANALYSIS 2021

2. SLIDE | 2
ABOUT WALMART
Name Walmart Inc.
Logo
Industries served Retail (discount department stores, warehouse stores and online stores)
Geographic areas served Worldwide (11,443 stores in 26 countries)
Headquarters Bentonville, Arkansas, U.S.
Current CEO C. Douglas McMillon
Revenue (US$) 559.151 billion (2021) 6.7% 523.964 billion (2020)
Profit (US$) 13.706 billion (2021) 9.8% 15.201 billion (2020)
Employees 2.3 million (2021)
Main Competitors
Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Amazon.com, Inc., Best Buy Co., Inc,
Costco Wholesale Corporation, Kmart Corporation, Schwarz Group, The
Kroger Company, Target Corporation, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. and
many other retailers/wholesale companies.

3. Walmart business overview from the company’s financial report:
“Walmart Inc. helps people around the world save money and live better –
anytime and anywhere – in retail stores and through e-commerce.
Our strategy is to lead on price, invest to differentiate on access, be competitive
on assortment and deliver a great experience. Leading on price is designed to
earn the trust of our customers every day by providing a broad assortment of
quality merchandise and services at everyday low prices ("EDLP").
EDLP is our pricing philosophy under which we price items at a low price every
day so our customers trust that our prices will not change under frequent
promotional activity.”[1]
SLIDE | 3
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION (1/2)
“ ”

4. “Through innovation, we strive to continuously improve a customer-centric
experience that seamlessly integrates our e-commerce and retail stores in an
omni-channel offering that saves time for our customers. Each week, we serve
over 240 million customers who visit approximately 11,400 stores and numerous
e-commerce websites under 54 banners in 26 countries.
EDLP is our pricing philosophy under which we price items at a low price every
day so our customers trust that our prices will not change under frequent
promotional activity. Everyday low cost ("EDLC") is our commitment to control
expenses so our cost savings can be passed along to our customers.
Our operations are conducted in three reportable segments: Walmart U.S.,
Walmart International and Sam's Club.”[1]
SLIDE | 4
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION (2/2)
“ ”

5. 1. Being the largest retailer in the world, with unmatched scale of operations
and strong market power over suppliers and competitors
SLIDE | 5
STRENGTHS
S W
O T
Walmart is the
world’s largest
company by
revenue and the
largest retailer in
the world.
Comparison of the top 5 retailers in the world in 2021
Walmart Amazon.com Costco Kroger Carrefour
Revenue
(US$ billions)
559.151 294.034 163.220 132.498 87.55
Locations 11,443 576 795 2,742 7,193
Countries
served
26 17 12 1 32
Employees 2.3 million 1,298,000 273,000 465,000 322,164

6. What does ‘being the largest retailer in the world’ mean to Walmart?
• economies of scale;
• efficient and effective use of resources;
• huge gains from implementing best practices;
• experimenting with less risk;
• market power over suppliers and competitors.
SLIDE | 6
STRENGTHS
Walmart’s revenue reached
US$559.151 billion in 2021,
more than Amazon.com
and Costco, the two next
rivals, revenues combined.
S W
O T

7. 1. Overdependence on sales from the domestic U.S. market
SLIDE | 7
WEAKNESSES
In 2021, 78.1%
of all company
revenue and
more than 85%
of its operating
income came
from the U.S.
Walmart’s net sales growth in 2019-2021 (in US$ billions)
S W
O T
Walmart U.S.
Walmart
International
Sam’s Club
2021
Net sales 369.963 121.360 63.910
Share of the total net
sales
66.6% 21.9% 11.5%
Net sales growth 8.5% 1% 8.7%
2020
Net sales 341.004 120.130 58.792
Share of the total net
sales
65.6% 23.1% 11.3%
Net sales growth 2.8% (0.1)% 1.6%
2019
Net sales 331.666 120.824 57.839
Share of the total net
sales
65% 23.7% 11.3%
Net sales growth - - -

8. $13.88
$14.58
$15.04
$20.02
$20.23
$20.34
$33.62
$38.67
$64.62
$367.19
Wayfair
Costco Wholesale
Kroger
The Home Depot
Target
Best Buy
Apple
eBay
Walmart
Amazon
1. Strengthen and expand Walmart Marketplace and Walmart Fulfillment
Services (WFS) to accommodate the growing number of smaller retailers
SLIDE | 8
OPPORTUNITIES
S W
O T
• An increased number of smaller
retailers moving online opened up many
new opportunities.
• In 2020, walmart.com become the
second highest earning e-commerce
website in the U.S.
• Increased traffic to the walmart.com
makes the platform more attractive to
the sellers who have not yet decided to
offer their merchandise through
Walmart Marketplace.
Top 10 U.S. companies ranked by retail e-commerce sales in 2021

9. SLIDE | 9
OPPORTUNITIES
S W
O T
• Walmart has an equally good
opportunity to attract new sellers to
Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS)
• In order for small retailers to be able
to compete with the large store
chains, they have to offer similar or
even better fulfillment of their orders
than top retailers can offer.
• This is where WFS can offer huge
benefits to smaller retailers.
Curbside pickup growth

10. 1. New laws and regulations concerning food, safety, wage, work benefits and
pharmaceutical business
Due to Walmart’s size, geographic expansion and business complexity it is subject to
numerous laws and regulations in domestic and foreign markets:
“The regulations to which we are subject include, but are not limited to: federal and state
registration and regulation of pharmacies; applicable governmental payer regulations
including Medicare and Medicaid; regulations regarding food and drug safety trade
regulations, and consumer protection and safety regulations, as well as state regulatory
authorities, governing the availability, sale, advertisement and promotion of products we
sell and the financial services we offer.
Changes in laws, regulations and policies and the related interpretations and
enforcement practices may alter the landscape in which we do business and may
significantly affect our cost of doing business.”
SLIDE | 10
THREATS
“ ”
S W
O T

11. SLIDE | 11
GET THE FULL
PRESENTATION
BUY WALMART INC. SWOT
2021

12. 1. Walmart Inc. (2021). Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2021. Available at: https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-
0000104169/598c8825-536a-4371-ab8a-98b9ee761c43.pdf Accessed May 13, 2021
2. Fortune (2021). Global 500. Available at: http://fortune.com/global500/ Accessed May 13, 2021
3. Carrefour (2021). Consolidated Financial Statements as of December 31, 2020. Available at:
https://www.carrefour.com/en/actuality/2021/2020-full-year-results-presentation Accessed May 13, 2021
4. Costco Wholesale Corporation (2021). Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2021. Available at: https://investor.costco.com/static-
files/0db73805-069a-42e4-96f9-6ea26ade0a73 Accessed May 13, 2021
5. THE KROGER CO. (2021). Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 30, 2021. Available at: https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-
0000056873/30ee8aa9-7149-428d-b3a2-fb0c15ab36d8.pdf Accessed May 13, 2021
6. Amazon.com, Inc. (2021). Form 10-K for the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2020. Available at: https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-
0001018724/336d8745-ea82-40a5-9acc-1a89df23d0f3.pdf Accessed May 13, 2021
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May 13, 2021
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11. Walmart Inc. (2019). Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2019. Available at: https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-
0000104169/b23b2787-eb44-4e0b-82bd-fca01f140a3e.pdf Accessed May 13, 2021
12. Walmart Inc. (2020). Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2020. Available at:
https://s2.q4cdn.com/056532643/files/doc_financials/2020/ar/Walmart_2020_Annual_Report.pdf Accessed May 13, 2021
SLIDE | 12
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2021
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Accessed May 13, 2021
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SLIDE | 14
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15. Ovidijus.Jurevicius@strategicmanage
mentinsight.com
Strategic Management Insight
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