BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Sam’s Club has completed a full refresh of its digital shopping experience, rolling out a redesigned website and app to all members as of the week of September 1. The overhaul includes a new presentation layer and a “global intent center” that lets customers choose their fulfillment method — pickup, curbside or ship-to-home — at the outset of their shopping journey.
Greg Pulsifer, senior vice president of e-commerce at Sam’s Club, said the updates allow the retailer to tailor and personalize the shopping experience depending on the chosen channel. “It gives us that entryway into knowing what our members are looking for and creating those better experiences for them,” he told Modern Retail. Key improvements include faster load times, stronger personalization features, and enhanced product detail pages with video and larger imagery.
The changes also enable more contextual advertising within the app through the company’s Member Access Program (MAP). Harvey Ma, vice president and general manager of MAP, has emphasized that ad revenue can be reinvested to fund club remodels or boost employee wages.
The refreshed app experience ties closely to Sam’s Club’s broader strategy of blending its physical clubs with e-commerce. More than half of the retailer’s online orders are fulfilled from clubs. Two new stores in Grapevine, Texas, and Tempe, Arizona, are serving as “digital playgrounds” to test innovations such as expanded fulfillment space, checkout-free Scan & Go, and new delivery initiatives.
Beyond groceries and general merchandise, Sam’s Club has been experimenting with service extensions such as pizza delivery — totaling 24,000 orders in the last week of August — and jewelry delivery at more than 100 clubs.
Industry observers say the retailer is leveraging Walmart’s fulfillment infrastructure to gain an edge over Costco. “Convenience … will be a competitive advantage for Sam’s Club and hard to replicate for Costco,” noted Karen Kelso, vice president at Kantar. Still, she cautioned that Sam’s must balance digital efficiency with the human connection that defines much of in-store retail.
