Market Analysis Company Profile Costco Warehouse Corporation is the second largest retail chain in the United States and third largest in the world. In fact, Costco is a membership warehouse club where members can enjoy quality products at affordable prices. Costco was founded on July 12, 1976 in San Diego, California under the name Price Club. Initially, Price Club operated out of an old airplane hangar in San Diego catering to a small group of business members (“About Us”). In 1983, the ‘Price Club’ name was changed to ‘Costco’ and opened its first warehouse in Seattle, WA with its headquarters is located in Issaquah, Washington. Today Costco has 671 warehouses throughout the world; 474 in the USA, 26 in England, 7 in Australia, 88 in Canada, 34 in Mexico, 11 South Korea, 20 In Japan, 10 in Taiwan, and 1 in Spain. However, as of today Costco does not have physical locations in China. Instead of …show more content…
This further amplifies the disconnect between the Costco website and stores. The information present on the website does not necessarily apply to the local stores. For example the prices vary between what is advertised for the few products on their websites and those same products in the nearby stores. By offering localized web results the varying prices and the differing products between the website and the store could be fixed. A customer would for example type their local zip code and then the items displayed and the prices for those items would be tailored for that particular location. Including a feature to see in what Costco location the online item is currently in stock would greatly improve the e-commerce experience by allowing customers to have the option to drive to their local Costco to pick up an item as opposed to having it shipped across the