I think Walmart has indeed been successful at converting into an experience that serves as a competitive advantage for them...for now. As we all know, Walmart is an incredibly successful business, which obviously hurts any of its other competitors. Who doesn’t want the lowest priced product? (Answer: those who know and truly care about what kind of conditions/pay workers in foreign countries get for making products for Walmart. These sweatshop conditions are ridiculous – but that’s for a different discussion). As the article, “What Walmart Knows About Customers’ Habits” states, Walmart has access to tons of personal information about its customers, such as driver’s license number, social security number, court record, credit worthiness, and even their mortgage amounts. Walmart can – if it so wishes to do so – understands hundreds of different types of customers in various geographic areas. It knows where it will do well, and that’s how it figures out where to build its next Walmart store. I mean – how many other competitors were able to do what Walmart did for its customers when Hurricane Frances made its way to Florida? Walmart was able to prepare and stock up products for its customers ahead of time. Based on data they collected from stores when Hurricane Charley struck, Walmart could predict what products were needed when future natural disasters would strike.
That all being said, I don’t know how much longer people will go without either knowing or caring that Walmart basically holds their customers’ lives in their hands. Privacy is a HUGE issue, and I think the reason so many shoppers continue to shop at Walmart is either because they 1) don’t realize what kind of information Walmart is storing about their customers, or 2) don’t particularly care that Walmart has all this information because they trust Walmart. Customers don’t seems to really mind whether Walmart has a competitive advantage over other stores because most people inherently want what’s immediately best for them, which are cheaper products.
Right now, I don’t believe that Walmart having all this information is particularly dangerous, so I wouldn’t say I’m either comfortable or uncomfortable with Walmart having much personally identifiable data. The moment that Walmart messes with people’s lives because of the data they carry – I’d rethink my stance on this issue. Walmart is doing what most businesses in their position would do – figure out what’s in the customer’s shopping cart and cater to it in the most profitable way FOR THEM. However, I’m a big humanitarian, and I don’t necessarily agree or like that Walmart almost monopolizes the business. It’s dangerous when suppliers really don’t have a say in “negotiation”. What the article says about Walmart operating on “supply and COMMAND” rather than “supply and DEMAND” worries me a bit.
In this Customer Insight’s class, we’ve learned about the value of catering to individual needs and bettering the lives of people with products. We’ve also learned about the importance of traditional marketing research. Walmart doesn’t seem to truly VALUE its customers. I read an interesting blogpost at http://www.erinword.com/2007/03/which-wal-mart-demographic-are-you.html. I'm not sure I'd like to be categorized as a Walmart shopper! I think Walmart should use their technology to build brand loyalty. I believe in business for bettering the world and those who live in it. It seems like although Walmart is offering LOW prices, it is also hurting many employees who are underpaid and other competitors more than it should. I think Walmart does use its technology effectively for its purpose of gaining profit. It is interesting to me that Walmart uses its technology to figure out how to couple products together so that on average a customer saves 10-20 percent on their shopping basket – it seems they are catering to the low income family. However, I would like to see how Walmart directly helps these low income families in the US or abroad. I would like to see Walmart use their technology to VALUE their customer’s lives and those to whom these customers relate to. Part of valuing their customers would be to NOT withhold so much information and publicly release this.
However, I do like Walmart’s website. I like that they have a section called, “What are people talking about – now?” Walmart understands that people want what’s IN – but not necessarily best for them.
I actually used to love making Walmart trips. All I could think of is how cheap everything was-or so I thought. Only later did I realize how much importance the quality of a product carries. Walmart has most likely used its technology to see the kind of customers that were switching over to buying clothes at Target, because Target held better quality clothing. Walmart probably saw the difference in the products in entire shopping carts, which is why I have recently heard that Walmart has upped the quality of clothing.
As you can see, there are certain ways that I like the way Walmart uses its technology, however, I personally don’t like it using its technology to monopolize its industry or controlling suppliers.
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