Walmart (NYSE: WMT) has a number of products on which its has offered prices reductions. According to the world’s largest retailer these are the “hottest deals of the year”. Walmart’s challenge is that every other retailer, and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) have “hottest deals of the year” as well. Big discount offers from all retailers have gotten lost in a sea of price cuts.

At the heart of Walmart’s tactics are showing consumers how much they can save on specific products. Many of these are in the consumer electronics category. Walmart has cut the price on the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) iPad mini2 from $268 to $199. Apple has struggled to bring iPad sales up in the last two quarter, an indication that the tablet is not popular.

A number of the Walmart deals are on off brand which the retailer can sell cheaply. For example, it has heavily discounted RCA computers, which is different from promoting brands like Dell and Samsung which all consumers have already heard of,

Walmart management has taken aim at Toys ‘R’ Us and any large big box or departments store retailer with low priced toys. Presumably a great deal of the shopping over the holiday will be parents buying gifts for children. Walmart has cut prices on some toys by a third. The price of the Barbie 2915 Holiday Barbie has been cut to $25 from $34.44. This may be a bargain. However, in the last two years Barbie has been left on the shelf as Lego sales have risen.

Steve Bratspies, chief merchandising officer, Walmart U.S. said at Thanksgiving ended:

“Then, at 6:00 p.m., we turned on the Black Friday magic in stores. Customers were excited about the return of ‘one big Black Friday event.’ It was simple and easy to shop, and customers took advantage of offers across channels.

“We’ve said this Black Friday would be the most integrated between Walmart stores and Walmart.com – and we delivered. Tens of millions of customers visited our digital and physical aisles to pick up video games and systems, televisions, movies and toys, many of the top items sold both on Walmart.com and in stores. And, they prepped beforehand – more than 25 million customers accessed store maps and the circular through our online and mobile tools for Black Friday.

After struggling for the last several quarters, Walmart needs to have those shoppers to turn into customers

 

 

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