Walmart, Sam's Club Amp Up Online Shopping Experiences
By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA
As the Amazon threat looms, both retailers begin offering customers new options to secure their online loyalty
This week, Walmart and Sam’s Club are both taking some important steps in the online game. Walmart recently announced that its online and digital development division WalmartLabs has acquired the recipe technology startup Yumprint in order to expand its online grocery delivery services. The retailer says that, “Bringing Yumprint into the Walmart family will help customers more easily make shopping lists from their recipe finds before they shop.”
Meanwhile, Walmart’s Sam’s Club has begun testing a new subscription service that allows customers to order items like diapers and printer cartridges online, the Wall Street Journal reports. This program, called “My Subscriptions,” was set up to compete with Amazon’s Subscribe & Save program. As WSJ reports, Sam’s Club used to be relatively safe from competitors like Amazon, as people often chose Sam’s Club for fresh food, groceries, and basic products that were either not sold on Amazon, or were more expensive on the Internet giant’s site. Now however, as nearly 35-40 million households are currently enrolled in Amazon Prime, Sam’s Club, with its own 47 million members, is starting to feel the pressure.
CEO of Sam’s Club Rosalind Brewer has been keeping her eye on the Internet giant, especially since Sam’s Club members are “really prone” to belong to Amazon Prime as well, the WSJ says. According to Brewer, “The competitive landscape is shifting. It’s spanning from Amazon Prime, an online membership community, to the traditional warehouse clubs.” As one venture capitalist formerly connected with Amazon has hinted, Amazon is looking into launching a new business called “Pantry,” which would allow customers to purchase goods like toilet paper and cleaning supplies in bigger bundles for cheaper shipping costs.
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To stay abreast with its online-savvy shoppers and Amazon, the retailer’s new “My Subscriptions” program will cover 700 items, including baby, beauty, and office supplies. Customers choosing to shop online will not need to pay shopping fees for these subscription items, though they will not be available for additional discounts. While remaining competitive is certainly important for Sam’s Club, the company isn’t considering this to be a “strategy targeted at Amazon Prime.” Rather, “My Subscriptions” is a way to strengthen Samsclub.com and to “maximize the intersection of bricks and clicks,” Sam’s Club spokesman Bill Durling says. Expanding the company’s e-commerce offerings has been on CEO Brewer’s mind for awhile now, WSJ says. The company recently hired former eBay exec Jamie Iannone to spearhead the integration of Sam’s Club’s website with Walmart’s global e-commerce unit.