Short about Wal-Mart in Germany

Clearly dominating the US retail market, Wal-Mart expanded into Germany (and Europe)
in late 1997. Wal-Mart’s attempt to apply the company’s proven US success formula
in an unmodified manner to the German market, however, turned out to be nothing
short of a fiasco. Upon closer inspection, the circumstances of the company’s failure to
establish itself in Germany give reason to believe that it pursued a fundamentally
flawed internationalization strategy due to an incredible degree of ignorance of the
specific features of the extremely competitive German retail market. Moreover, instead
of attracting consumers with an innovative approach to retailing, as it has done in the
USA, in Germany the company does not seem to be able to offer customers any compelling
value proposition in comparison with its local competitors. Wal-Mart Germany’s
future looks bleak indeed

By: Andreas Knorr and Andreas Arndt