Sam's Club Tests All-Digital Store Location
Sam's Club, the Walmart-owned membership club, is testing its first all-digital store. Inside the club, which will open in mid-October in the Dallas area, customers will have to use a smartphone app called Scan & Go to ring up their purchases as they walk through the aisles. In the area typically reserved for cash registers, the company will display online-only items. Members can scan QR codes and go straight to the items in the app. Store workers will have about four times more space for preparing customers’ e-commerce orders for curbside pickup and home delivery, according to Sam’s Club executives.
Total Retail's Take: Over the years Walmart has used Sam's Club as a testing ground for emerging technologies, including systems that improve store operations and customer experience. The membership club has been established as the tech-forward arm of the retail organization, with successful pilot programs, such as Scan & Go, being implemented with Walmart's locations. The introduction of an all-digital store speaks to the commitment from Walmart to embrace the future of shopping, which includes customers shifting between channels within the same purchase journey for ease and convenience. Lastly, Sam's Club continues to innovate in an effort to take share away from market leader Costco. Sam’s Club and Costco have roughly the same number of U.S. clubs, but Costco pulls in about twice as much annual revenue. Net sales for Sam’s Club totaled $86.2 billion in its most recent fiscal year, compared with $176.63 billion for Costco’s U.S. clubs.
