Sam’s Club unveils pilot where shoppers scan purchases and have items shipped home
Sam’s Club announced Tuesday it is testing a new app-based feature, Scan & Ship, that allows people to use a smartphone to buy items in the club and send purchases directly to the home.
It is another example of how the warehouse club is using digital approaches to stand out from competitors like Costco.
The warehouse club has also acted as a tech incubator for parent company, Walmart.
For Sam’s Club shoppers, a trip to the store typically means lugging home big and often cumbersome items. A month’s supply of diapers. Lawn chairs. Large cartons of chicken broth or giant boxes of cereal.
The Walmart-owned membership club is flipping that on its head as it tests a new digital tool. Customers at select clubs can browse the aisles, retrieving items that fit in the car trunk and shipping other purchases directly to the home. They can check out all purchases in a single transaction on their smartphones.
Sam’s Club CEO Kath McLay said the company sees technology as a way to improve the customer experience and build on its gains over the past year.
“We want to have great items. We want to have disruptive prices. And we want to make sure that we’re providing convenience to our members,” she said in an interview with CNBC. “What we really learned through the pandemic was that we need to stay true to that strategy.”
During the health crisis, Sam’s Club rolled out curbside pickup to all its stores, as customers sought fast, contactless ways to pick up online purchases. The Scan & Ship service, announced Tuesday, is the latest way that Sam’s Club is using digital options to stand out from competitors. It will become a feature of Scan & Go, which allows customers to ring up purchases with a smartphone as they add items to their shopping carts.
The company has designed and launched app-based tools for employees, too, including a voice-enabled service called Ask Sam that helps locate items and answer customers’ questions.
By testing and launching new ways for consumers to shop, Sam’s Club has driven its own growth and become a tech incubator for its parent company.
Comparable sales, a key metric that tracks sales at stores open for at least the past 12 months and online, have grown faster at Sam’s Club than Walmart over the past year. In the first quarter ended April 30, Sam’s Club’s comparable sales growth and e-commerce growth outpaced its parent company as they rose 7.2% and 47%, respectively, compared with 6% and 37% at Walmart U.S.
Total membership at the warehouse club also hit an all-time high in the first quarter. The company does not disclose how many members it has.
