Wal-Mart is in the retail business, which also includes Internet e-tailing. The Internet has interesting aspects and will definitely serve a growing market throughout the 21stcentury. Profits are not easily made ovef the Internet, and issues of cost of delivery,merchandise returns, and data security are top concerns prior to building business over the Internet. Wal-Mart moved into the Internet arena in 1996 with the introduction of Wal-Mart On line, and then it relaunched the site on January 1, 2000, as Walmart.com. Wal-Mart looks at Internet retailing as another store with possibility, but without walls.
Walmart.com, with its headquarters located in the San Francisco Bay Area, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This location choice affords Walmart.com access to the best pool of Intemet executive and technical talent. The company was able to attract atop retail management talent in Jeanne Jackson as the CEO of Walmart.com. This venture combines the better of two worlds, technology and retailing, in order to provide customers easy access to more things at Wal-Mart 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Its distinct purpose is to provide consumers with a convenient and rewarding online shopping experience.Walmart.com will have a separate management team and board of directors. Ultimately, itmight choose to go public; however, Wal-Mart Stores will retain a majority ownership of the new venture. Walmart.com provides easy access 24/7/365 to more than a million products. Items ordered online can be shipped to the customer's homes for a modest fee or free shipping to the customer's nearest Wal-Mart store. In addition Wal-Mart is developing new services such as music downloads and 1 -hour photos.
Operations
Wal Mart's expense structure, measured as a percentage of sales, continues to be among the lowest in the industry. Although Walton watched expenses, he rewarded sales managers handsomely. Sales figures are available to every employee at Wal-Mart. Monthly figures for each department are ranked and made available throughout the organization .Employees who do better than average get rewarded with raises, bonuses, and personal recognition. Poor performers are only rarely fired, although demotions are possible.
All employees (referred to as "associates") have a stake in the financial performance of the company. Store managers earn as much as $100,000 to $150,000 per year. Even part-time clerks qualify for profit sharing and stock-purchase plans. Millionaires among Wal-Mart's middle managers are not uncommon. Executives frequently solicit ideas proving the organization from empioyees and often put them to use. The Walton family and management (as insiders) own nearly 44 percent of Wal-Mart stock, These holdings are worth Parly $28 billion today. Continuing a Walton tradition. Wal-Mart invites over 100 analysts and institutional investors to the field house at the University of Arkansas for its annual meeting in mid-June. During the day-and-a-half session, investors meet to pexecutives as well as Wal-Mart district managers, buyers, and 200,000 hourly sales people. Investors. see a give-and-take meeting between buyers and district managers.
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