Example Of Research Paper On Walmart Smart Shopping Cart

Introduction

Retail stores are capable of creating high level of product relevancy with the customer experience . Walmart is a chain of giant stores that has brought almost every consumer good under one single roof in order to facilitate its customers in an effective manner . The customers at Walmart can purchase their day to day grocery to hardware equipment and tools. They can purchase vegetables and fruits as well as meat and fishes.
The large stores of Walmart attract a large number of customers with almost any need of a product . The company has always setup its stores in a large area in order to accommodate more and more customers without letting them feel congested . Such a step had been effective in the past; however, with an increase in customers at all stores, the company needs to introduce measures or services that would improve the buying experience of its customers while reducing crowding in the stores . Such an improvement needs to be simple and easy to understand for the customers and would not be putting additional burden of large capital cost.

Background

Walmart is the best position retailer stores’ chain throughout the world . It is considered that consumers who have prior experience of shopping through internet or making a list of items to be purchased later through looking at them on internet have a tendency to be satisfied more than others . Companies aim at providing unique experience to customers in order to keep their interest in coming to the stores and make purchases .
Walmart has faced criticism on low wages, sweatshop, and bad shopping experience to its customers. This has brought bad publicity and requires change in strategy through implementing a solution to the problem through reducing staff which will enable the company to pay more to the remaining staff .
Walmart implemented an online website that is able to take online orders and deliver the items to homes of the customers ; however, the satisfaction level of customers in such a service is not great due to the difference of pictures of items on the website and the actual items received. Such difference remains there and can’t be completely removed. Therefore, in order to get customers satisfied with high level, the company needs to improve the buying experience of customer in the stores rather than the online shopping.
On the other hand, Walmart states that it has tied most of the staff’s pay with their performance. Such a setup does not necessarily means that Walmart is operating at optimum level resulting in indication that there exists a possibility of improving the operations of Walmart . Walmart needs to gain back its good reputation through improving the workplace environment through reducing staff and implementing measures that not only increases the customer satisfaction level but also improve the efficiency of Walmart.
The entry of Walmart in retailing has caused competition of better inventory management in the industry which shows that Walmart’s success through having such a competitive edge. The company needs to maintain the edge of better inventory management through improving it resulting in better customer experience .
Better inventory management includes better placement of products for easy access and easy checkout for customers. Walmart needs to reorganize its way of placing items on shelves in order to facilitate its customers.
Walmart has huge size so it gets advantage of having better negotiations with its suppliers; however, its customers are domestic consumers with whom negotiations can’t be made therefore, Walmart needs to improve customers’ shopping experience in order to retain them .
Walmart has a website with the link address of walmart.com that enables its customers to place online orders and or browse through the catalogue. There exists a need to allow the user to make a list from the website and download it to the smartphone and use the same conveniently while shopping .

Problems

Customers spend more time in finding the product in Walmart as compared to actual buying process. If every customer knows exactly where his/her required product is, then the shopping time will substantially decrease. The decrease in shopping time will result in greater customer satisfaction and enhances space available to customers through removing congestion from the store. Moreover, people feel frustrated if they are unable to find a product and they have to ask the stores’ staff to help them do it. Such an arrangement puts additional load on the staff resulting in more staff requirement with high number of customers present in the stores.
People find the shopping experience at Walmart as a bad experience due to the crowded aisles, empty shelves, difficulty to find the required items, and shopping carts scattered in the parking lot .
This situation is prevalent in Walmart due to the fact that the customers spend more time searching their required product as compared to actually purchasing that product. If a system is introduced in Walmart that enables the customers to exactly find out where the required item is located in the store then it will greatly reduce their shopping time which will result in reducing the level of crowd in the stores.
Improving customers experience in the stores is an essential requirement in order to keep a good rating amongst the customers. Customers of Walmart have been shifting to other super stores due to more convenient shopping experience they are having in those stores. Walmart needs to introduce such measure that would not only address the issue of finding the products for its customers but will also improve their experience in the stores through facilitating them in various aspects of shopping.
It can be seen in the parking lots of Walmart that customers leave normal carts in the parking area because they simply consider it a waste of time to return back the carts to original point. Such a situation results in crowded parking lots where new customers find difficulty in parking their vehicles. This situation sometimes result in driving the new customers away from Walmart towards other super stores with better parking area conditions. Walmart needs to address the issue in such a manner that the carts are promptly returned back by the customers to the original point so that the parking area remains clear from any cart.

Proposed Solution

In order to reduce the buying time of the customers the main focus in this paper is placed on the time spent on searching for the product. For the purpose of reducing the time spent on finding the product, a smart cart has been proposed. This smart cart will have multiple features that can be helpful to the buyers in finding their product in an effective manner.
The main idea that is presented in this paper is Smart shopping cart that might attract more customers through enhancing their buying experience in stores. Following explanation shows how the Smart Shopping Cart would work step by step: -
An application will be created in the Smart Shopping Cart in which the consumer can make their lists, before they go to the stores for shopping.
If the customer wants to use the smart cart he/she must pay a small amount of money and get half of the money when they return the Smart Shopping Cart back to its place of issuance.
The Smart Shopping Cart will scan the list from the smart phone to the small screen attached to the cart so there won’t be any need to use the phone while shopping.
The customers will have options while using the smart cart to start from A-Z or in whichever order he wants or what is in the rows.
On each edge of the rows there will be a sensor so when there is something on the customer lists the sensor lights will turn green or red. An alternate to it could be to turn on a light on the screen of the Smart Shopping Cart.
When the customer picks an item he needs to scan it to find the price from the Smart Shopping Cart then it will tell the price and remove the item from the list of the customer.

Inside the cart there will be small boxes with bags so the customers can easily place their items.

The Smart Shopping Cart will have a Pay and go option that will also accept credit card.
Results
The results of implementing a Smart Shopping Cart in Walmart stores are presented in following points: -
Overall the Smart Shopping Cart will benefit both the company and its consumers; for the company it will save more money by reducing the number of staff in stores. Also, gain more money by forcing the customers to shop with the Smart Shopping Cart. The smart cart will help in keeping the parking lot clean and well organized when the customers will be getting half of the price of Smart Shopping Cart back when they will return it back to the issuance area.
People will start loving to go shopping in Walmart and will not feel burdened by it. They will be having an organized shopping experience that will utilize their shopping time just for shopping their desired products. Customers will make a list of required items at home or in the office and when they will go shopping in the Walmart, they will simply attach their smartphone with the Smart Shopping Cart which will copy the list and then direct the customer in order to allow them to purchase their desired items without any difficulty in finding them.
As a practice, a super store places the products at the end of the store which are required to be purchased on daily basis in order to make the people walk through the store and get into impulsive buying. Such an arrangement is disliked by the customers because normally people do not want to walk all the way to the end, just to get one thing. When the Smart Shopping Cart will be implemented, the stores will place the daily use items at the end of each row rather than at the end of the store. In this manner, customers will have to walk through only one row and in that row the stores will place the items on discounts or other deals. Such an arrangement of store will not only allow the customers to walk minimum steps to get their desired products but will also retain the spirit of impulsive buying by them.

Conclusion

The Smart Shopping Cart at Walmart with the defined features will play an important role in satisfying the customers of the store at new level. The greater customer satisfaction will result in an increase in the sales of Walmart because customer satisfaction is a key factor of success in retail marketing. The shopping experience plays an important role in deciding the customer satisfaction level in retail stores. The shopping experience of Walmart will improve through implementation of the new Smart Shopping Cart.
The Smart Shopping Carts will result in a quick finding of products by the customers through a designated way of indicating the products’ locations. Another important area that will be addressed in Smart Shopping Cart is the checkout by customers. The checking out system will be automatic and swift through automatic scanning of items in the cart by the Smart Shopping Cart and charging the customers through detecting their credit information through swiping of cards on the Smart Shopping Cart.
The Smart Shopping Cart will be available at a nominal rental price for use during purchasing at the stores. When the customers will be done buying items and have taken the same to their vehicles then they will return the Smart Shopping Cart back to its issuance point where they will be given a cash back of 50% of what they initially paid. This measure will ensure that the Smart Shopping Cart will not be lying in the parking lot. Subsequently, the customers will be happy to get half of their money back and the new customers will find the parking lot much clear than before.

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