Sam’s Club, the $90 billion warehouse retailer under Walmart’s wing, is chasing an audacious goal: to double its membership, sales, and profit over the next decade. On the main stage at CommerceNext, EVP & COO Tom Ward laid out the game plan, one where digital investment, AI-powered personalization, and a “fail fast, scale fast” culture are now table stakes, not future bets.
The New Rules of Loyalty: There’s No Such Thing As ‘Locked-In’
Ward’s keynote cut straight to a hard retail truth: “Loyalty in retail is the absence of something better.” It’s a line that resonates across an industry where a seamless experience, not just a good price, is now the minimum expectation.
Ward’s keynote message: Loyalty is conditional and always up for grabs.
As Ward emphasized, “Our members’ last best experience becomes their new minimum expectation”, a relentless bar for Sam’s Club and every retailer to clear.
Today’s “best” quickly becomes tomorrow’s norm, raising the bar for every customer touchpoint.
Membership as a Virtuous Cycle
The Sam’s Club model is simple on the surface, but powerful: 90% of income comes directly from membership, not markups. Every dollar gets reinvested into value, better prices, improved experience, more reasons to return. This membership flywheel fuels the company’s expansion strategy and drives its digital ambitions.
Sam’s Club was built on Sam Walton’s conviction: “Give them a place where they could buy quality merchandise in bulk, at the best prices.” That vision, Ward argues, still anchors the brand, but today’s execution demands a seamless omnichannel experience that’s as powerful in-app as it is in-warehouse.
The original Sam’s Club value proposition remains: quality, bulk, best prices.
Digital Engagement: The New Engine for Growth
Ward’s personal history with omnichannel runs deep, from unifying Walmart’s grocery and e-commerce apps to scaling last-mile delivery. Now, those same learnings power Sam’s Club. Digital engagement isn’t just a growth lever; it’s the single best predictor of member value. Digitally engaged members shop in-club three times more often, across twice as many categories, and spend three times as much. Even more telling: they renew at a 10% higher rate.
Sam’s Club COO Tom Ward shares his digital playbook at CommerceNext 2025.
The club’s investments, like Scan & Go™ for frictionless shopping, Just Go exit tech, and personalized, AI-driven app suggestions, are engineered to collapse barriers, not add more. Members can scan items as they shop, check out instantly, and walk through AI-powered exit arches that validate purchases without delay. The result? A 90+ NPS for Scan & Go™ and a new digital baseline for competitors to match.
Failing Fast, Scaling Faster
Sam’s Club’s innovation culture mirrors its founder’s philosophy: hire mavericks, celebrate scrappy tactics, and embrace mistakes as fuel for progress. Ward offered an unvarnished example: a “pilot” for rotisserie chicken delivery that, by accident, rolled out to every club. The upside? Thousands of hot chickens delivered, delighted members, and a digital service that’s now permanent. Similar “mistakes” led to chain-wide pizza delivery at prices that undercut traditional takeout.
Why Purposeful Adaptation Matters
Ward’s talk underscored that Gen Z and Millennial members now account for more than half of new membership growth, a digital-native audience whose expectations are shaped by the best of every brand, not just retail peers. For them, the nearest Sam’s Club is “the one in their pocket.”
Physical retail is still central, but only when augmented by digital convenience and speed. New Sam’s Club locations, built with advanced supply chain automation and powered by Walmart’s technology backbone, aim to deliver fresh value, fast.
Tom Ward, EVP & COO, brings a global perspective from Walmart and a challenger mindset to Sam’s Club’s digital transformation.
The Takeaway: Retail Isn’t Waiting
Ward closed with a clear challenge: “Members and customers will not wait. We need to listen harder, move quicker, test smarter, and serve better. Our goal is to be that something better.”
As retail’s margins for error shrink, Sam’s Club’s approach, rooted in purpose, but unafraid to disrupt itself, offers a blueprint for brands chasing growth without sacrificing member experience. In a world where “loyalty” lasts only until a better option comes along, that’s the new definition of retail resilience.
📊 Emerging channels = measurement gaps
Gen Z are discovering brands on TikTok, researching through YouTube Shorts, and acting on influencer-led stories in real time. But what happens when sales don’t follow immediately? Traditional attribution struggles to capture the long game.
That’s why Fospha’s latest research, Glow, matters. It offers a new evidence base showing how brand spend links directly to business outcomes, even when conversions happen weeks or months later.
The study explores how leading brands like Sweaty Betty used early signals, such as branded search and engaged visits, to predict future revenue and defend brand investment when budgets came under pressure.
In a landscape where Gen Z attention starts high in the funnel, Glow helps marketers prove those impressions aren’t wasted, they’re future demand in motion.
🍷 Join Us for Drinks, Tomorrow
ClickZ is hosting an exclusive drinks gathering tomorrow evening (Wednesday, June 25)—and we’d love to see you there.
We’re bringing together some of the smartest minds in commerce for one evening of sharp conversation and good wine in Midtown Manhattan.
⏱ 5 PM onwards
📍 Midtwon Manhattan (exact location shared after RSVP)
🍸 Drinks on us. You in?
If you're serious about what’s coming next in commerce, this is where you’ll want to be.
Spots are limited, grab yours below.
💬 On the ground and want to connect?
The ClickZ team will be at CommmerceNext, speaking with brands about AI, measurement, and brand performance. We’re collecting insights for post-event coverage and we’d like yours in it.
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