Wal-Mart Bucks Standardization

Wal-Mart Bucks Standardization

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We have written a great deal, in both this space and in our print publication Picture Business, about how retailing in the U.S. has become so much more about catering to customers’ specific needs and less about a one-size-fits-all retail model.

We give you the recent news from Wal-Mart that the retail giant plans on divvying up its approximately 3,400 U.S. stores into six different models, targeted to corresponding demographic groups: African-Americans, the affluent, empty-nesters, Hispanics, suburbanites and rural residents. The plan was originally drawn up in an attempt to perk up sluggish same-store sales by breaking the one-store-fits-all mold. The idea clearly represents a radical departure for the world’s largest retailer, which actually built its retail strength on a foundation of standardization.

With so much of retail turning to a more tailored approach, Wal-Mart’s marketing department began researching its shoppers last year, using census data and customer feedback, among other things, to break them into demographic groups. The company concluded that by offering all customers the same things, “you end up under-serving everyone, because you don’t have an offering that is specific to that customer segment,” a company statement claimed.

While Wal-Mart continues to open new stores at a rapid rate, it has been reported that sales gains at existing stores have been sliding since the late 1990s. This far more targeted approach will get a limited rollout initially, but Wal-Mart claims the numbers on the “demographic targeted stores” will be watched closely to determine the company’s next move. According to recently released statistics, about 85 percent of the U.S. population shops at a Wal-Mart at least once a year.

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