Wal-Mart's German Misadventure
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Case Code: BSTR082 Case Length: 13 Pages Period: 1990 - 2003 Pub Date: 2003 Teaching Note: Available |
Price: Rs.400 Organization: Wal-Mart Industry: Retailing, Countries : Germany Themes: International Marketing |
Abstract Case Intro 1 Case Intro 2 Excerpts
"I don't think that Wal-Mart did their homework as well as they should have. Germany is Europe's most price-sensitive market. Wal-Mart underestimated the competition, the culture, the legislative environment."
- Steve Gotham, Retail Analyst - Verdict Retail Consulting, in October 2002.
"We screwed up in Germany. Our biggest mistake was putting our name up before we had the service and low prices. People were disappointed."
- John Menzer, Head - Wal-Mart International, in December 2001.
German Blues
For the world's largest retailing company - Wal-Mart Inc (Wal-Mart), the German market was proving difficult to crack. By 2003, even after 5 years of entering Germany, Wal-Mart was making losses. Though Wal-Mart did not reveal these figures, analysts estimated losses of around $200-300 million per annum in Germany, over the five-year period. According to analysts, the main reason for Wal-Mart's losses was its failure to understand German culture and the shopping habits of Germans. Though Wal-Mart was famous the world over for its Every Day Low Pricing (EDLP), which turned it into the world's number 1 retailer, it could not make an impact in Europe's most price-sensitive market - Germany.
Wal-Mart also ran into series of problems with German regulatory authorities for its pricing strategies and faced considerable opposition from German suppliers to its centralized distribution system. It had problems with its German workers too. However, Wal-Mart was not the only retailer to do badly in Germany in the 1990s. German retailers too faced losses in the period because of the flat economy and rising unemployment. Though Wal-Mart was confident that there would be a turnaround in its fortunes in the German market by late 2003, this opinion was not shared by most independent analysts....
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