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Strategic Initiative Planning

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Strategic Initiative Planning
Wal-Mart has announced during the release of the company’s 2014 annual SEC Report that several strategic planning initiatives for the company in fiscal year 2015. Team B will focus on Wal-Mart’s planning initiative to successfully integrate e-commerce into the current organizational structure. Identifying the Planning Initiative
According to Wal-Mart (2014), “We’re also intent on creating transformative growth by adding capabilities in e-commerce and mobile commerce. When we view our business through the eyes of our customers, we don’t think about our stores, clubs or websites independently. Instead, our goal is to have customers see these channels converge as one unified relationship with us. We want to deliver a relevant, personalized and seamless experience across all channels. So, our approach to investments will continue to evolve to support the singular goal of enhancing the customer experience to further grow sales” (Positioning to serve our customers). Current president and CEO of Wal-Mart’s e-commerce division, Neil Ashe, admitted that Wal-Mart has a late start to the online retail market (Hempel, 2014). Instead of trying to beat Amazon in the online market Wal-Mart is currently trying to create a new logistics system in order to keep up with the delivery of all its products to online customers. Right now Wal-Mart does not have the infrastructure in place to economically meet the demand of the online world. “The stakes are only getting higher for Wal-Mart. Last year, online sales rose 16% in the U.S. to $224.3 billion, and today account about 5% of overall consumer-goods sales. That number is expected to double by 2017” (Banjo, 2014, Para. 7)
Initiative affects the organization's financial planning
The e-commerce initiative that Wal-Mart is working into has major effects on the company’s financial planning. Wal-Mart

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