Complete 7 pages APA formatted article: Wal-Mart SWOT Analysis. The company had more than 2 million employees and about 8,500 stores in 15 nations (Ivey School of Business, 2012).

Wal-Mart store has had its ups and downs through it still thrives in the retail industry to extend its growth to other regions all over the world (Ivey School of Business, 2012). Wal-Mart store does not deal with specific goods though it deals with various big-box goods and services through its various retail shops globally. The company’s competition comprises of major big-box retailers such as Target, K-Mart, grocery stores and other smaller retailers like General Dollar. Most of these competitors have reinvented themselves by stocking more inventories and offering lower prices on particular products compared to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart growth can be attributed to the aspect of offering low-priced products though it later copied the merchandise assortment strategies of other retailers mostly through observation as a result of store visits (Ivey School of Business, 2012).

The main challenges that were facing the company as per the date the given case study was published included the issue of intense competition and sales drops. By 2012, the company was still trying to pull through from a sequence of mistakes that had given its rivals such as Amazon and Dollar Stores close the performance gap(Ivey School of Business, 2012). Most of the competitors had analyzed and copied numerous aspects that used to differentiate this giant retailer from the other competitors. Some of the aspects that were copied included their distribution systems which are were termed by the given case study as one of the best distribution systems. The company usually engages in cross-docking of products so as to minimize their storage time in the warehouses on top of positioning its warehouses near distribution centers. In addition, Wal-Mart eases the management of ordering and shipping from suppliers by adopting electronic data interchange (EDI)&nbsp.systems.