Assignment Sample on Covid-19 Pandemic
Introduction
Covid-19 is known as the period of coranavirus. It is considered an unexpected and unrealized Virus that has impacted all over the world. It was a serious virus as most of the people who are suffering from coranavirus had their life at their stake. Despite the people, the virus also impacted the whole Industries including fast food and retailers. Walmart is one of the high margin companies within the retail industry. This project includes the whole analysis of Walmart’s company within the period of covid-19. The challenges, opportunities and changes which were held within the company are brief examined and returned within the report.
Content and analysis
Challenges and opportunities
Walmart is considered as one of the major joints in the retailing industry. Various stores are owned by Walmart. Various products are offered by the company including household products groceries and various daily necessities. As per the period of coranavirus the government guidelines were to support the social distancing by initiating the lockdown period in which most of the stores and shops were closed due to the social impact of people. Still, various challenges were faced by every company. Some of the major challenges which were faced by Walmart Company to cope up with coranavirus are listed below.
As per the statement of higher authority working within Walmart, It is considered that the daily essential item and the hygiene material such as paper roll and various medicines were in high demand. It was not an easy task for the company to level up supply and demand. The company was forced to satisfy the citizens by giving them a little portion of the stock as the main manufacturer was not ready to give the exact amount of material.
The biggest challenge was to maintain the price of the material. Some of the local retailers who were having the daily essential items and other groceries were giving and charging higher prices. Some manufacturers also raise their prices as per the high demand of people coming from the region (Nilufer, 2020). It was essential for the retailers to have the proper margin and profit to have raw materials from the manufacturer and supplying it to the appropriate customer’s. Raising the prices would be a challenge as other joints such as Amazon were having their products that were of low-cost.
Despite these challenges, it was examined that Walmart Company had a higher advantage and opportunity to establish a digital platform. The website of Walmart is capable of handling the volume of customers to have card services. Walmart started delivering the products at the doorstep of people by ensuring social distancing and no contact delivery. It was essential for the company to maintain this gap between the customers as the guidelines of the government were strict to lessen the impact of coranavirus.
The covid-19 period allowed Walmart companies to strengthen their promotion and sales over the digital platform. Earlier it was noticed that the main focus of Walmart company was over the physical and traditional marketing as compared to digital marketing (Remko, 2020). In covid-19 they had a great change over the digital marketing as per the engagement and involvement of customers over this platform. Various types of combos and officers were given by the company to motivate and increase the purchasing power of customers.
The company started investing in search engine marketing and social media. Social media is considered as one of the highly engaged platforms and covid-19 years has approx 80% more engagement of people. Most of the citizens in their leisure time were using social media to contact their family and friends.
Changes held within the company
Changes are very essential for the company to tackle the situation. The covid-19 period was a difficult phase for various industries to maximize profit and sales. It was very essential for this company to mention the changes which will help them to cope up and lessen the impact of this pandemic on their business.
Some of the major changes which were noticed within the business model operations and supply chain of Walmart Company are listed below briefly in contact with the covid-19 period
Covid-19 had a great impact on the supply chain which was used by the Walmart Company in the early period. As per the high number of covid-19 cases in various regions the supply chain of Walmart blocked. For example, the raw material for the groceries was coming from regions like North America. It was not possible to have material coming from the place where there is a high number of virus patients (Elrhim and Elsayed, 2020). They started using the alternate method for the supply chain in which some of the quality which was taken by the company was not acceptable as per the previous high quality.
As per the comparison of earlier periods, it was determined that Walmart started focusing more on their staff and employees working within the stores (Nassauer, 2020). After the closure of their stores in the lockdown period it was essential for their employees to have a proper salary and a name to live their livelihood as some of the prices of various items were increased. The Walmart Company started giving free items which were in use daily by necessity (Nanda, 2021). Employees and staff were given proper food and groceries with their proper salary in their accounts which were beneficial and important to strengthen the trust and loyalty towards the company.
Some changes were seen over their digital platform. Earlier this platform of Walmart was having only some options related to the payment.Due to the highh engagement of people over the digital platform in Covid- 19. The company started accepting various modes of payment including wallet up and other methods. The card system was initiated by the company to have smart delivery which can satisfy the customer’s needs and timing. Most of the order was related to the groceries and daily items which were needed by the people. It was very essential for the company to have an effective interview process to satisfy the needs of customers (Nagurney, 2021). For example, if a person has ordered eggs and bread from the Walmart Company the company needs to maintain a proper time to deliver that item effectively.
The need for groceries at the highest take therefore it was very essential for the company to maintain the proper balance for equalising the supply and demand of people. It has a major change over the inventory which is owned by the company. Walmart’s company focuses on having proper Precautions in its inventory by maximizing its grocery items. Covid-19 allowed non-food retailers as the expiry and any issue regarding their product is a lesson in the period of covid-19 as compared to Food Industry (Karger and Rajan, 2020).The food items have less expiry as compared to non-food items. It was a great challenge for the company to supply the appropriate and high-quality product to the customers as per their level of consumption.
Walmart also supported various social concerns regarding covid-19.Many advertisements were printed to support an engaging customer to maintain social distancing (Tripathi, 2020). It analysed as per the statement of higher authorities of Walmart that covid-19 have maximized their sales and profits but only for the food products.
The business model of the Company was considered as a hierarchy model in which the commands were given by the higher authority and lower-level employees and staff are engaged over to complete it (Sissung and Figg, 2020).In the period of covid-19 the company started changing their procedure by having a brainstorming session in which every valuable view of a different staff member will examine properly.
Figure 1. Walmart Sales Soar on Consumer Stockpiling
(Source: Boyle, 2020)
This gave them appropriate knowledge and ideas regarding their digital marketing. They started investing in social media and search engine marketing. Mainly search engine marketing is used to maximize sales but in the context of Walmart, it has been used for benefiting the individual who was stuck within the period of covid-19. The company to maintain and enhance its reputation and brand value.
Life cycle and growth strategies.
As per the fact, it has been examined at the life cycle which is used by Walmart company has 4 stages. This may include introduction, growth maturity and decline. The introduction phase includes the introduction of products and services which are offered by Walmart. In the growth stage, the profit and revenue which is owned by the company are properly examined and collected (Ding and Li, 2021).There are various methods and strategies which are obtained by the company to increase their growth stage as all companies which are operating within the region are to maximize their earnings and revenue. The maturity phase of the company is to maintain its proper market shares. A company needs to have an effective market share value. It has the company to achieve a higher brand value and involvement of various investors for strengthening the financial value (Boyle, 2020). The last stage of the company is in decline. This stage includes the termination of the products which have executed all the three above statements and stages (Manuel and Herron, 2020). Most of the products have their Hair product life cycle. There are various conditions in situations in which the company needs to decline the product. In covid-19 there were various products which were having less expiry of one day only. It was very essential for the company to decline that material as most of the people were engaged in buying products having long expiry validity.
One of the major strategies which were adopted by the company was to focus on the food items. The company saw the analytics which was focusing on the Hai engagement of people over the groceries and food items. They started asking manufacturers to maximize their manufacturing capability to have the finalized product. Maintaining the proper balance of the inventory was one of the go strategies which have the company satisfy the demand and cope up with the situation in the covid-19 period (Spatt, 2020). Main retailers such as Amazon and other companies were focusing more on food items as they have a high margin and fewer risks of expiry.
Walmart companies start analysing the strategies of their competitors and major rivers which has them to gain the appropriate benefits by analysing their strategies (Sheth, 2020). Some of the creative teams were assigned by the company to innovate the ideas and operation which was held by Walmart company during the covid-19 period. Placing their concerns regarding the social welfare of people was one of the major growth strategies which have the company in enhancing their reputation as well as brand value (Höhler and Lansink, 2020). The brand value of the company directly impacted over to maximize their sales and profit.
Having properly evacuated individuals who were more engaged over digital Technology was one of the major advantages which companies acquired for increasing their growth. They started investing proper amounts over digital marketing for example there is a building system over search engine marketing. Many keywords are purchased by the company which helps them to show their ads to the relevant customer interested in buying the product. Walmart started to bid on the keywords at a higher value which has the company is taking the high involvement of customers over their products (Socal and Anderson, 2021). Strengthening their delivery department was the second major advantage that enabled the company to maximize the benefits and cope up with the difficult period of covid-19.
Conclusion
Covid-19 was started in the year 2019. It has a high impact on various countries in the year 2020 as no one was aware of its harmful effect and impact on the country. Various countries such as Walmart, Amazon and Domino’s were impacted which is considered a giant within the retail industry. They are having various stores which help the company to operate effectively. Despite the stores, in the period of covid-19, the long term stays initiated by the government forces the company to shut down their stores temporary. The focus of Walmart company over digitalisation to maximized and increased to ensure the proper profit for coping up with the situation.
References
Books and Journals
Ding, A.W. and Li, S., 2021. National response strategies and marketing innovations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Business horizons, 64(2), pp.295-306.
Elrhim, M.A. and Elsayed, A., 2020. The Effect of COVID-19 Spread on the e-commerce market: The case of the 5 largest e-commerce companies in the world. Available at SSRN 3621166.
Karger, E. and Rajan, A., 2020. Heterogeneity in the marginal propensity to consume: evidence from Covid-19 stimulus payments.
Manuel, T. and Herron, T.L., 2020. An ethical perspective of business CSR and the COVID-19 pandemic. Society and Business Review.
Nagurney, A., 2021. Optimization of supply chain networks with inclusion of labor: Applications to Covid-19 pandemic disruptions. International Journal of Production Economics, p.108080.
Nanda, S., 2021. Inequalities and COVID-19. COVID-19: Global Pandemic, Societal Responses, Ideological Solutions, pp.109-23.
Nilufer, N., 2020. Critical assessment on business strategy from aviation to retail industry during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Walmart Case. International Journal of Business Ecosystem & Strategy (2687-2293), 2(2), pp.8-14.
Remko, V.H., 2020. Research opportunities for a more resilient post-COVID-19 supply chain–closing the gap between research findings and industry practice. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
Sheth, J., 2020. Business of business is more than business: Managing during the Covid crisis. Industrial Marketing Management, 88, pp.261-264.
Sissung, T.M. and Figg, W.D., 2020. EXPLOITING COVID-19: QUACK-A-MOLE. Medical Research Archives, 8(8).
Socal, M.P. and Anderson, G.F., 2021. The Role of Advance Purchasing Commitments in Government Drug Price Negotiations: Lessons From the COVID-19 Response.
Spatt, C.S., 2020. A tale of two crises: The 2008 mortgage meltdown and the 2020 COVID-19 Crisis. The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, 10(4), pp.759-790.
Tripathi, S., 2020. Companies, COVID-19 and respect for human rights. Business and Human Rights Journal, 5(2), pp.252-260.
Nassauer, 2020. Walmart Sales Surge as Coronavirus. [Online]. [Assessed through]: <https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-sales-surge-as-coronavirus-drives-americans-to-stockpile-11589888464>
Boyle, 2020. Walmart Sales Soar on Consumer Stockpiling. [Online]. [Assessed through]: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-19/walmart-sales-soar-on-consumer-stockpiling-and-shift-to-online>
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