Sales Channels in Retail Industry Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Sales Channels in Retail Industry - Case Study Example 2.2 Carrefour The Fournier and Defforey families created the Carrefour Company in 1959. They opened the first supermarket in 1960 in Annecy, France. Promodes was created in 1961 by the group and the first supermarket 'Promodes' was opened in the year 1962. A new concept of the hypermarket was invented in 1963 by the Carrefour group. The first hypermarket was opened in Sainte Genevive des Bois. In 1969 Carrefour opened a store abroad in Belgium. With a move into Belgium in 1969, Carrefour began its internationalization. tThe group Promodes adopted many banner names in the 1970s such as Shopi and Continent. We can say therefore that Carrefour was an important brand with the aim of growing and expanding its operations into new countries. By the end of 1971, the company was operating 16 wholly owned stores, had an equity interest in five stores operated as joint ventures, and had franchise agreements with seven additional stores. The idea of the hypermarket stressed mass sales, low delivery cost and discount everyday to achieve high rotation. by1999; it had 681 hypermarkets, 2,259 supermarkets, 3,124 hard discount stores, and 1,921 convenience stores and other formats selling under its banner. The stores were located mostly in France but also throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Carrefour internationalized much faster than Wal-Mart. 3.0 Product Sector The Carrefour Group mostly deals with consumer goods and services. These include convenience goods such as food products, which are sold by all formats of retail stores, and shopping goods and services (household appliances, electronic devices) which are sold by hypermarkets only. For Wal-Mart, the major merchandise lines include house wares, consumer electronics and... As the paper declares Wal-Mart was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton and his brother James â€Å"Bud† Walton. They first started with a single discount store in Rogers, Arkansas. The Discount store consisted of servicing small and middle-sized towns at prices equal to or lower than prices in nearby cities. The company has registered a unique success story in the history of retail industry credited to the leadership of Sam Walton. The company internationally came off the ground by opening its first store abroad in Mexico City in 1991. The company then extended its international presence to Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Brazil, Argentina, South Korea and Germany and today operates more than 600 stores in international arena. According to the research findings the Carrefour Group mostly deals with consumer goods and services. These include convenience goods such as food products, which are sold by all formats of retail stores, and shopping goods and services (household appliances, electronic devices) which are sold by hypermarkets only. For Wal-Mart, the major merchandise lines include house wares, consumer electronics and groceries or food products. The two therefore deal with consumer goods and services hence are competitors as the products are similar. Wal-Mart differentiated business departments to thereby serving different market segments. Wal-Mart’s success is built on the practice of a lowest price everyday strategy that significantly reduces searching cost.