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Walmart Case Study Memo

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Memorandum

RE: Wal-mart Case Study

DATE: April 15, 2013

********

The key source of Wal-Mart’s success through 1994 was their ability to optimize and be innovative in the area of technology. Wal-Mart not only exceeded their competitors in the amount they invested in technology - which was over $700 million from 1987 to 1994 - but was also well ahead of their competitors in the use of technology to reduce expenses.

Through the use of technology, Wal-Mart was able to manage their company’s inventories more efficiently within their warehouses while also enabling them to utilize the assets of their suppliers. Wal-Mart’s inventory and sales data were tracked via UPC codes. This “tracking technology” allowed them to ensure accurate pricing, improve efficiency by the utilization of shelf pricing versus price tags (which was still being used by their competitors), along with the ability to identify inventory that was stolen from one store and attempted to be returned to another. With this cutting edge technology, combined with the installation of a satellite system, Wal-Mart had greater communication between stores, improving inventory control, resulting in reduced overstocks and inventory shrinkage, while allowing them to also track the daily results across all of their stores. Wal-Mart’s distribution network also benefitted from the investment in this satellite system. For example, when a consumer purchased an item such as a bottle of Just for Men’s Gray-in, it was removed from the store’s inventory and the notification of the transaction was transmitted to the supplier’s warehouse. Through the use of electronic data interchange (EDI), this technology created a system that electronically connected Wal-Mart directly with over 3,600 of their vendors. Through the ability provided by Wal-Mart’s “retail link”, there was transparency between both the

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