Article Review- "Why Wal-Mart is Worried About Amazon "

Hello all,
As I am working through my large pike of magazines this Memorial Day Weekend 2012, I came across this great article in Bloomberg Businessweek, April 2- April 8, 2012.

It talks about how Amazon.com is now Wal-Mart's biggest competition. How can this online mall beat the world's largest retail chain? Easy, they are dominanting the market their in --- Online!

Wal-Mart must've just got wind or just paid attention to the numbers and found out they really suck online.

Only 2% of their sales come from their website. In my opinion, its because of the user interface. I am not engaged when I happen to land on their page. The articles lists their downfall or lack due to smartphones and the scanning feature. Where consumers can often find an item cheaper online by scanning the products barcode. The funny thing, Amazon.com is always listed #1.

So they've hired some techies to get things up to par by offering apps and a different way to pay. The newest idea is order online and to pay with cash instead of credit card in the store. I will be waiting to see if that hits the mainstream or not. Then I know if it does it won't last long.

I used the site to store option once and it was such an hassle. I waited for what seemed like forever. That stopped me from ordering anything else through their website. The employees are always confused when it different from the regular drum of the day.

Although, I am ranting my opinion I look forward to seeing what Wal-Mart does online to prove itself. But what needs to be addressed more than anything is customer service at all Wal-Mart stores.

The workers need to be educated monthly minimum on customer service. The managers often forget too why they are there. Value the customer is what Sam Walton said. Now, the grandchildren need to re-enforce it.