It has had a steady growth in sales and just last year reached over $110 Billion. Costco also prides itself on treating its employees really well with good benefits and higher wages. Compared to Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club, Costco’s main competitor, Costco has nearly twice as many members. It also offers its members a great 90 day warranty where a member can replace any item no questions asked. It is able to do this because of its great relationships with its
Since the company was founded as a corner store, the company’s business plan has always emphasized on expect more, pay less brand promise that sets it apart from its chief rival, Walmart. Although, Walmart is known for its low prices and offers a large selection to its customers; it’s customer service is often found to be nonexistent. This
Their current market situation and competitive strategy highlights aspects that Costco has implemented in the organization to increase sales and
The mission of Costco is “to continually provide all of its members with quality goods and services at the lowest possible prices.” This mission statement is directly correlated to Costco’s business model and its strategy. Costco’s mission statement shows that business really pays attention to quality as a huge selling point. The foundation of Costco’s business model is centered around a membership-only warehouse business model, in which there are high sales volume, rapid inventory turnover due to their fee-paying members. Due to this type of business model, Costco wholesale remains profitable even by having significantly lower gross margins than other wholesalers.
Earlier this year, American Express announced termination of the co-branded relationship with Costco. This relationship, which goes back 16 years, would expire March 16,2016. Obviously this decision gave American Express a big hit. On Feb 12 when the news was broke to the public, Amex shares dropped 6%. In this memo, I want to give some advises about how American Express make up the lost after breaking up with Costco.
Costco operates on a membership only basis, therefore customers and businesses must purchase a membership to shop at the retailer. Costco currently has two memberships available, which are their individual membership, also known as Gold Star, and their Business membership, both of which cost $55 annually (10-K, 2015). For $110, a customer can upgrade to an executive membership, where they can enjoy a 2% discount (SWOT, 2015). They currently have around 75 million members, and due to their no-frills approach, low prices, and high quality products they have a high member retention rate of 91% in the U.S. and Canada, and an international rate of 87% (Forbes, 2016). Costco has been steadily growing and their net sales increased from $75,255 million in 2010 to $110,212 million in 2014 (SWOT, 2015).
Almost everyone has heard of the membership warehouse retailer, Costco Wholesale, whether or not you actually choose to shop there. You can find one of their warehouses in over 400 locations around the United States, as well as an additional 200 warehouses in Canada, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom, and parts of Asia. Although they are not quite as instantly recognizable as their main competitor, Sam’s Club of Wal-Mart Inc., Costco has attracted somewhat of a cult following due to their unusual business operations. In many financial comparisons, Costco seems to beat out all of their industry competitors. Even in the recent economic downtown, Costco still posted growth in their stock, as well as higher than industry average profits.
In addition, Costco does a great job in their internal growth process with hiring (Loeb, 2015). Costco’s purchasers do well as they know their store locations and the local demographic’s desires. For instance, in Australia, the Costco there like Vegemite, so they have that there and not in U.S. locations (Loeb, 2015). Costco is smart with their distribution chains as they usually use 65% of local bought and specific products (Loeb, 2015). Globally, Costco has built trust within their brand as customers go to them for quality service, freshness, and a great selection of products.
Marketing Mix at Costco 1.) Product - Costco offers their customers low prices on selected private and a limited selection of nationally branded products in a wide range of merchandise categories. Costco’s Kirkland Signature private label is known for its quality and value. Costco currently carries more than 330 private label items which make up more than 15% of their sales.
3.0 Concepts 3.1 Resources and Capabilities In order to achieve and sustain competitive advantage, a business needs both resources and capabilities. Resources are assets that are owned or employed by an organization. The organization utilizes and uses these assets to carry out their business operations. Resources can be grouped either tangible assets or intangible assets.
Few of the ways Costco displays the value of putting employees first is by compensating them above the national average pay grade, investing back in the community and being environmentally sensitive. In 2015 they contributed over $31 million to various organizations. Some other areas are as follows: Employee first: Costco has displayed these value in several ways and they believe in following through on their commitment to the community. They believe in hiring locally to give back to the community.
Key Trends – Globalisation One of the main opportunities Costco has is more global expansion to specific targeted countries. Although operating in many countries, Costco is heavily dependent on the U.S. and Canadian markets. It still has the opportunity to expand into the Asian and Australian markets where it has a limited presence. Costco has the capability to operate about 100 stores in Taiwan, Korea and Japan combined and about 20 stores in Australia. It currently has 41 stores in Taiwan, Korea and Japan combined and 6 stores in Australia.
Market Segmentation: To be of value market segments must be measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable, and actionable (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Segmentation of demographics for Costco is vast as the current product offerings include all genders, ethnicities, incomes. age groups, and social classes. When considering demographics, it is important to consider the average or typical characteristics of the target market. As mentioned earlier the target market or focus for this company is supplying the small- to medium-sized business and targets the middle- to high-end consumer with its private label brand Kirkland Signature.
What are the two types of core competencies that drive a firm’s competitive advantage? Which firms demonstrate a clear competitive advantage because of (a) major value-creating skills/core capabilities and/or (b) superior assets or resources? Which firms have demonstrated sustainable sources of competitive advantage? The two core competencies that drive a firm’s competitive advantage are cost leadership and differentiation.
1. How does Costco differ in the way it treats its employees from other large retailers? Costco differs from other retailers in treating employees on notation of “Take care of employees then they will take care of organization” • Allotting a better pay package with an average pay of 17 $ per hour which is 40 % higher than other retailers. • Covering 85 % of employees with health insurance plans even part time employees who are remained continuous 6 months which is very high in compare to other retailers. • Not having much disparity among employees of various grades in terms of pay scale or fair treatment in firm or growth opportunities etc.
