Sam's Club CXO On Redesigning The Membership Experience One Exit Arch At A Time

Bonjour, and hello, this is Omnitalk Retail.

I'm Chris Walton.

And I'm Anne Mazinga.

And we are coming to you live from the Fusion Group's podcast studio at NRF Europe in Paris.

And joining us now, Anne, is Diana Marshall, the EVP and Chief Experience Officer at Sam's Club.

Diana, welcome back to omnitalk.

This is your second time with us, if I'm not mistaken.

Yes.

It's great to see you.

Thanks for having me.

Well, Diana, for those who might be listening to this interview with you for the very first time, if you don't mind just giving us a little bit of your background and your role at Sam's Club since the last time we talked to you.

Yes.

So I would say retail veteran, last 20 years, spent about 18 years on the Walmart US side in both merchandising as well as operations.

And then I've actually been at Sam's Club for the last two and a half years and most recently get the chance to lead our experience team.

So really excited about that.

It includes membership, marketing, ads, our insights team, certainly, and our experience strategy team.

So we're excited as we lean in and differentiate how we can really accelerate our business case.

Yeah, so you see a really fun job.

I mean, so speaking of fun, you had a big announcement last week.

You basically redesigned your entire website and app experience.

First question, why and what all went into it to make that happen.

Yes.

So we're really excited for this to launch and us to now be at 100% certainly.

I think a couple of things I would call out.

One, everybody wants faster load time.

Really important.

That was something that we'd gotten feedback on.

So we're happy that we solved a basic issue.

Okay.

Interesting.

Also, secondly, we've got new capabilities from a personalization standpoint.

Our product pages are able to have better images and it's really also led us to be able to highlight fulfillment that we're continuing to lean into in a bigger way.

So our sister Walmart has made great progress in E commerce.

It's not the big Brother, it's sister.

Big brother, maybe I should say big bro Walmart.

They have made great progress in E Comm.

And so we're really excited that we're able to leverage some of what they've done and really bring it to Sam's Club.

And it's a huge win for our members and more to come, certainly, as that's sort of milestone one and you should expect to continue to see us lean in and continue to improve the Experience.

Well, in addition to the app and site updates, you're also having Sam's Club members use their mobile devices for Scan and Go.

And in the stores, you've eliminated checkout lanes.

So they can just walk right through a big arch and everything's done and taken care of for them.

Maybe explain a little bit about what that's looking like now since it's been out in the world among members right now.

Tell our audience a little bit about that, Diana.

So, you know, we launched Scan and Go years ago based on feedback from our members.

And one thing that we do really well at Sam's Club is listening.

And we listen to feedback, and then we work to solve the problems and make it easier and more effortless and.

Or effortless to shop with us.

And so Scan and Go's launched.

And then actually we had an idea of feedback we got was, well, we're still doing receipt checks, so can we solve that problem?

So we rolled out, in less than a year, these exit arches, and now they've been live all year, this year in the entire chain.

And it's really exciting to see.

We continue to see our member experience go up, our scores go up.

We're continuing.

Computer vision continues to improve.

So our accuracy being able to check is really accelerating.

And really proud of the team for the speed that we've done this, but also the continuous improvement that we're seeing this year.

So walk us through that.

So I'm going through the store, I'm getting my things, scanning them as I put them into my cart, and then I hit checkout right there.

And then, like, how big are the arches?

Like, give me a sense of pushing.

How many carts, wide carts, can we push through those?

Quite a few, actually.

Really?

There's usually two lanes in every arch.

So if you check out two lanes in every arch.

Yes.

Wow.

Cancel Christmas Club.

Right.

So you're using Scan and Go on your phone, you check out, and then simply you just walk out.

But actually, even if you check out at a register, you can also just walk out.

The computer vision is able to leverage and be able to verify.

Just don't have to receipt check anymore.

That's basically the idea.

The easiest way is certainly to use Scan and Go.

Yeah.

And we know our members love it and continue to see that grow.

But you can actually get the benefits of the arches both ways.

I didn't realize that.

Okay.

You get the benefit of the arches both ways.

Have you experienced it yourself?

I have not yet, no.

We can make this happen soon.

Yeah.

We are going to make it happen soon, actually, Diana.

Very much so.

And is that the official term, the exit arch?

Is that what we're calling it?

Well, that is what we have named it internally, but most members just recognize it as they're walking out and exiting the building.

So it's.

They don't know any different.

No.

Yeah, right.

Okay.

So one of the other things we've noticed, man, you guys are just like a font of innovation.

Like you've got the web design, you've got the exit arches.

Because the other thing we've noticed, your two newest stores, one in Texas and one in my hometown of Tempe.

So maybe when I'm there for the holidays, I'll check it out.

But they've got much bigger back rooms.

They're like six to seven times, if I'm not mistaken, larger than your typical back room in your average Sam's club store.

Why is that?

What's the rationale there?

Yes.

So, you know, we actually launched curbside pickup back in Covid, like many other retailers, and in many cases we just found room in the club and put it in and we sort of rearranged the floor, but we didn't actually put any proper space for it.

So as we're building these new clubs, we're continuing to lean into convenience.

We have express delivery, we have curbside pickup.

And actually you saw pretty significant growth.

E commerce is 18% of our business now and definitely driving large portions of our growth moving forward.

So really, these new clubs and remodels, we're just making sure that we build the proper space to be able to serve our fastest growing opportunity for our members in a better way and keep it off the floor.

So it's not something you have to look at as well.

Yeah, that's awesome.

Well, Diana, let's close things out with a question about the upcoming holiday season.

I remember talking to Chris Nicholas.

Not too long.

That's right.

Remember that?

He was telling us about, like all kinds of crazy light up trees and lawn displays and like, I think I could have the ice palace in my front yard.

What are you most excited about as.

You head into the holidays?

And what can members expect from Sam's club this holiday season?

You know, the thing I love the most in retail is the holiday season.

And I think at Sam's Club this year.

Yes, we will have the best Thanksgiving meal.

Oh, that's right.

He talked about that too.

Yes.

And we will also have the best gifts.

And we're really excited about our new holiday campaign this year.

We'll have somebody fun to kick us off as we get into the holiday season.

Is it you?

It's not me.

Somebody fun?

No, it's definitely not me.

But I can tell you there are great items to be had.

You know, we are an item business at Siem's Club.

And whether it's a smart hoop that is definitely going to be on my boys checklist in the Marshall household or there are travel options for those that are looking to travel but want to save money.

We've got some great deals like travel packages.

Travel packages.

That's right.

That sounds like your sweet spot, Ann.

So there's a lot of new coming soon and we're excited.

We'll have maybe a little gift guide to drive a little inspiration as well.

So more to come from Sam's Club this year as we think about the holiday season.

Yeah.

My hunch is you're going to have multiple things to talk about, as you always do, because you are definitely the most innovative retailer in America, at least in our opinion.

So we appreciate that opinion.

Yeah.

Thank you very much.

I would hope so.

We started as an experiment in 1983.

We're glad to keep it going.

You're doing a great job.

You're doing a great job.

Well, thank you, Diana.

It's great to see you again.

You're about to go on stage here at NRF Europe too, right?

In like, what, 40 minutes or something?

I think so, yeah.

Wow.

So it's great to see you both again, too.

Yes.

Thanks, Diana.

Well, break a leg on stage as well.

And yeah, Ann, let's sign us off here.

Until next time.

Be careful out there.