The word "data" is a small word, but data's value proposition can be a powerful force when it comes to the retail customer experience.
And that force, as Sam's Club knows well, can not only lead to greater operations efficiency but real-time insights that make for better-informed decision making and, ultimately, boost the customer's shopping experience.
Those are just a few benefits the wholesaler, owned by Walmart, is achieving via a data collection system involving in-store robot-collected data, its app, Own Your Inventory, and nearly 600 AI-powered inventory scan towers developed by AI firm Brain Corp.
The data collection approach
Brain Corp.'s towers are mounted on autonomous cleaning robots deployed across all of Sam's Clubs in the U.S. They are part of Brain Corp.'s 26,000 autonomous robot fleet in play across the world.
The towers collect insights on product localization, planogram compliance, product stock levels and verify pricing accuracy. They process 18 million captured images a day.
Sam's app, developed internally, relays the captured data to in-store associates for real-time insights that can foster smarter decision-making and help store managers run stores more efficiently — all of which makes for an enhanced customer shopping experience.
The data strategy, according to Todd Garner, VP, retail product management at Sam's Club, is directly connected to the wholesaler's "member-obsessed" strategy. The company is constantly leveraging data and member interactions to find opportunities to provide the best shopping experience possible.
"In the course of our discovery, we realized the ability to quickly find items was a want for members, plus Sam's Club had an opportunity to improve item location on the sales floor as well as other inventory insights, such as outdated price signs," Garner said in an email interview.
"Bringing this opportunity to life required both a consistent approach to capture the insights and an intuitive, efficient way to share the insights with associates. Our autonomous scrubbers were already deployed, running daily, and covered the entire club — they provided a perfect mechanism to collect data. We chose to evolve our existing inventory application to surface the new insights to associates so all key inventory management activities could be found in one place."
Prior to selecting the autonomous scrubbers, Sam's Club investigated multiple other technologies, said Garner, but Brain Corp. tech won out easily.
"Data collection was best achieved through our existing partnership with Brain — they had technology already deployed which could be easily adapted to meet our needs. While we explored third-party options to support data processing and insights, ultimately Sam's Club's internal computer vision and tech teams delivered the most accurate relevant results, so we proceeded with an internal solution for data processing and insight generation," he said.
"The existing autonomous scrubbers provided the most efficient, consistent experience and emerged as the best solution. While we explored multiple vendors, our existing relationship with Brain and their willingness to partner with Sam's Club made them a fantastic partner."
A hefty ROI
Sam's Club was the first major retailer to deploy inventory scanning robots across all locations nationwide in 2022 and the impact has proven to be notable, according to Gavin Donley, head of marketing at Brain Corp.
"AI robotic technology is both in its infancy and taking root. For years now, many retailers like Walmart have used autonomous cleaning robots to help their cleaning teams increase their cleaning capacity and productivity by taking on the time-consuming assignment of cleaning a store's floors," Donley said in an email interview.
"Meanwhile, automating other assignments within retail is now taking off — especially inventory scanning. Manual inventory capturing methods don't give retailers an efficient way to consistently and accurately maintain inventory visibility, but with inventory scanning robots, retailers can frequently collect inventory data, augmenting the labor-heavy and time-consuming aspect of conducting inventory inspections," he said.
Sam's Club inventory scrubbers have already automated 35% of inventory management tasks.
"These robots are able to then share insights with retailers so they can quickly address out-of-stock or low stock levels, items in the wrong location (planogram compliance) and if an item is listed at the wrong price (pricing compliance)," Donley said.
At Sam's Club the technology approach is not only boosting the customer experience but making the store associate job a bit easier, said Garner.
"We are a people-led, tech powered company and Sam's continues to invest in internal resources to develop and evolve the tools that keep our clubs running and differentiate the experience at Sam's Club. We believe if we have the right experience for our members and associates, the rest will follow," he said. "From a member perspective, this measured through net promoter score, and we continue to see tech-enabled gains. From an associate perspective we look to our associates and regularly pulse to make sure they feel they have the tools to effectively do their jobs and are satisfied with individual applications."
Garner's advice to retailers considering the same data collection approach is simple: Keep both the member and associate experience at the forefront.
"Technology can deliver significant incremental value to members and associates but should not be taken lightly. Functionality must be designed to deliver measurables, impactful outcomes for members and tools must be developed in a way that truly works for associates," he said, adding "delivering value requires end-to-end consideration and long-term commitment. There will be lots of learnings along the way but when done correctly, it will significantly differentiate the retail experience."
Donley recommends retailers looking to invest in robotics view automation as an overall company strategy, not just as the solution to one application.
"By doing so, retailers can identify partners that enable them to choose the best solutions to meet their needs," he said. "We are creating a partner ecosystem around our software platform to help retailers customize their automation strategy based on the problems they're trying to solve or advancements they're looking to see. Looking at automation holistically will help retailers choose the best long-term automation strategy to build around."
Donley envisions AI impacting the customer experience across all touch points within the retail environment.
"Turning data into actions is the power of AI, and its effect on the customer experience can be as simple as ensuring you have the right number of rotisserie chickens available on a Tuesday, to sending online pickers to the physical store that will be able to best fulfill the order of the customer based on its current inventory levels. The net of both is AI driving customer loyalty, which drives increased sales for retailers," he said.