Wal-Mart Increases E-Commerce Efforts


By: Zain Nabi  |   March 28th, 2013   |   Business, News

The internet has provided businesses with an opportunity to further expand their network and reach out to consumers rather directly, but to survive in the online business world, one has to have a sound strategy and planning with respect to carrying out day to day affairs and overall targets. Competitors keep on coming with something new in their e-commerce models to beat their rivals and one such step has been taken by Wal-Mart that is introducing some changes to make its services more efficient.

 

Wal-Mart, apparently facing tough competition from Amazon, is going to use its stores to ship the online orders at better pace. Wal-Mart is planning on introducing lockers in its stores to stock goods ordered online. The goods can be collected personally by the buyers. There are some other measures including increasing the number of stores that Wal-Mart is contemplating. Moreover, it is also considering the option of letting the buyers pay through cash while they collect the goods ordered online from one of the stores.

 

According to Reuters, the idea of paying cash for the goods ordered online is gaining popularity, especially because shoppers’ doorsteps theft has increased of late, and the buyers now look for safer places to pick up the goods and pay the amount.

 

These plans are still in the test phase and the company does not plan on introducing the proposed changes to all of its stores. Instead, only a few selected stores will witness the change in working methods and installation of lockers, and if the experiment bears positive result, the company might expand the scope of the project.

 

As far as comparison with Amazon is concerned, Wal-Mart is quite behind the former in the online race. Although Wal-Mart generates huge revenue as a retail store, Amazon generates much more revenue than Wal-Mart, only if the revenue through online orders is considered.

 

It seems a good strategy from Wal-Mart to introduce lockers and increasing the shipping speed of the online orders. Many other leading companies have also adopted the same approach. We will have to wait and see how this strategy serves Wal-Mart, and to know if it needs something more to ensure dominance in the online market.

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