A FEW WORDS FROM A FOOL…
Emil Lee, one half of the Motley Fool team writes this morning about how the age of buying customers with everyday low prices has passed and offers advice for how Wal-Mart might regain its lost customer base. Not that Lee Scott is listening.
I’ve never been a retail-store analyst, nor do I have a ton of investment experience in the retail sector. So what makes me qualified to give advice to Inside Value selection Wal-Mart, a $350-billion-in-sales behemoth?
Well, I’m your average American customer. And in the past few years, I’ve defected to Costco and Target for consumer goods, Whole Foods for groceries, and Best Buy for electronics and music. Here’s how Wal-Mart can win back customers like me.
Wal-Mart has historically crushed the competition simply because its scale and logistical prowess allowed it to sell toilet paper, diapers, and DVDs much cheaper than the competition. Delighted customers flocked to stores.
The competition, including grocery stores, Target, and even Kmart (now owned by Sears), regrouped and counterattacked, paring their own expense bases to achieve closer cost parity with Wal-Mart.
Now customers can’t be bought because competitors have stepped up their game and closed much of the price differential. Wal-Mart needs to realize that it now must offer much more than price.
But can it?
[...] A FEW WORDS FROM A FOOL… Emil Lee, one half of the Motley Fool team writes this morning about how the age of buying customers with everyday low prices has passed and offers advice for how Wal-Mart might regain its lost customer base. Not that Lee Scott is listening. Keep reading… [...]