Sam’s Club Alleviates a Key Pain Point for Members
Sam’s Club has launched a new technology that will resolve a key member concern: waiting in line for receipt verification to exit the club. The new tech announced at CES 2024 in Las Vegas leverages a first-of-its-kind application of artificial intelligence (AI) and computer vision technology to eliminate queuing at the club’s exit area.
Currently running pilots across 10 Sam’s Club locations, the technology is used to seamlessly confirm members have paid for all items in their shopping carts – without requiring an associate to check members’ purchases before leaving the club. Before this technology, members were slowed by queuing at the club’s exit area to have Sam’s Club exit greeters review receipts. Members continue to say they want a faster and more convenient shopping experience and consistently rated the wait times at the exit – especially during busy periods – as a pain point in the shopping experience.
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Now, after a member completes payment at a register or via Scan & Go, a combination of computer vision and digital technology deployed in the exit area of the club captures images of carts and verifies payment for all items within a member’s basket. Sam’s Club says it’s the first retailer to deploy this technology at exit and at scale.
This digital innovation not only streamlines the member’s exit, but also allows exit greeters to refocus their time and expertise to assisting members and ensuring they have an enjoyable shopping experience.
“This is Sam’s Club at its very best, listening to feedback from members, putting their needs at the center of everything we do – and then applying digital innovations to deliver an industry-leading member experience,” said Chris Nicholas, CEO of Sam’s Club. “We are constantly looking at ways for Sam’s Club to be the most convenient membership club and will continue to prioritize using technology to provide a truly differentiated and delightful experience for our members.”
According to the warehouse club, more than half of members at the pilot locations are already seeing the benefits of the new experience. With AI constantly learning and improving across any of Sam’s Club’s thousands of items and exit transactions at multiple locations, the company said it will continue iterating and enhancing the technology through early 2024, intending to rapidly expand it to its nearly 600 clubs by the end of the year.
Sam’s Club, a division of Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart Inc., operates nearly 600 clubs in the United States and Puerto Rico. Walmart operates more than 10,500 stores and numerous e-commerce websites in 20 countries. Walmart U.S. is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America, while Sam’s Club is No. 8. PG also named Walmart one of its Retailers of the Century.
