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Walmart (NYSE: WMT) may have found its way into ecommerce, and its eponymous stores have also generated higher profits – but its chain of warehouses Sam's Club has just not followed.
During a period when the niche leader Costco (NASDAQ: COST) Sam's Club has struggled, to the extent that the company announced earlier this year that it would close 63 underperforming stores.
In order to remedy its ills, the executives decided to make major changes to the Sam's Club shopping experience. And to test them in the field, the company has built a prototype store that will function as a kind of retail lab.
"There will be no other club like this," Executive Vice President Jamie Iannone wrote in a blog post. "This will be a first mobile shopping experience, powered by the new Sam's Club Now application." At the base, Sam's Club Now will be a technology lab that also serves as a live trading club.
The club, which was announced in June, is about to start and offers a lot of information on the channel's current projects. Of course, there is no guarantee that these ideas will end up in your Sam's local club, but the concepts tested by the company show just how much its leaders are thinking about.
Sam's Club is about to open its one-of-a-kind test store. Source of the image: Sam's Club.
Make shopping better
Bargaining between warehouse clubs and their members has always been a simple arrangement – management spends less on staffing, merchandising and non-core products; customers get cheaper prices.
Sam's Club plans to revise this standard a bit. In his Dallas test store, he will introduce two major model changes. The first aims to solve a central problem related to warehouse shopping: the difficulty of customers to get help when they need it.
"Our employees play a key role in achieving this experience, which is why we are introducing a new role called Host Member," wrote Iannone. "Think of these associates as the club concierge, we will give them new technologies that will help them serve the members better and faster."
In addition, Sam's Club will also test upgrades to its Scan & Go technology, allowing customers to use the chain's app to bypass the pay-line. Iannone wrote that over 90% of the members who tried the technology have reused it. Among the added features are:
- Smart shopping lists: The app will track your past purchase data and compile a shopping list for users that they can easily edit.
- Orientation and navigation: The app will offer interactive maps to guide buyers to the items they want to buy.
- Augmented reality: The AR display will offer a whole range of enhancements to your shopping experience, ranging from useful activities, such as showing the provenance of an item to silly items, like giving your cart the appearance of a pirate ship .
- Club pickup in one hour: Members will be able to place their orders through the app and then pick them up at the store an hour later.
Other technologies will also be deployed for on-site testing, including electronic tablet tags that will instantly update prices and a network of cameras that will help the company track inventory.
It's a work in progress
Sam's Club does not have all the answers, but it clearly seeks to improve the customer experience – something that has always been a weakness for warehouse clubs in general. Technology can offer him a cheaper way to add frills to the sleek model, which could (probably after many adjustments) give him an edge in trying to gain traction with Costco.
Although it is impossible to guess if any of these changes will help to keep a significant number of consumers away from its rival, some of them should at least help Sam & # 39; Club to retain and satisfy its members and to increase the number of its visits.
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