Like shown on the advertising slogan, Walmart ,the world largest retailer ,is the right choice for lower prices. For positioning as a dominance  in supermarket industry, Walmart uses its large bargaining power to lower the price at least 15% for a specific cart of groceries purchased for shoppers.However,recently, Walmart suffered heavy losses in Brazilian market and planned to close 25 stores in China. This can be explained by the shortages of low cost strategy.

1)  That Walmart failed in Brazil is because it failed to lower the cost for production as effectively as at home. When its rivals in Brazil also lower their prices like Walmart, the low cost strategy failed in that situation.

2)Walmart closed Chinese stores because the  ‘Organic Pork’ lead to the trust issue in China and low revenues totally. The reason lead to the scandal is Walmart  expanded its market in China too fast and also wanted to maintain its low costs , so each market is responsible for their purchasing instead of purchasing  by  the head of the sourcing in mass Chinese market to lower the administrative cost.

Therefore, Walmart can not solely focused on the low cost strategy in the future. It should also try to use differentiation strategy to operate differently from others or focused on different segments in the market, like enriching its own-brand products.

Reference list

http://www.lippincott.com/en/work/walmart(picture)

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304864504579139044008078258

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-23/wal-mart-s-everyday-low-prices-fail-to-stir-brazilians.html