Sam’s Club will develop a design studio at its Bentonville, Ark. headquarters to support design thinking for all employees, with a focus on facilitating cross-functional team collaboration across engineering, product management and design departments. The neutral space also will allow these internal teams to work with external partners in a workshop environment that focuses on creation.
Through the studio, Sam’s Club hopes to become known as a design-led organization. It will conduct physical product and hardware testing in the new space, which provides more freedom for creativity and development than the current campus.
The company is building on the momentum of the omnichannel strategy that it developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once the design studio is complete, Sam’s Club will cultivate fresh omnichannel tools, leading from its advancements in scan-and-ship, curbside pickup and Scan and Go to create experiences that will best serve its customers through an approach that blends physical stores with digital offerings.
Sam’s Club has been taking an active approach toward advancing its omnichannel capabilities over the last year. The retailer recently partnered with ecommerce advertising platform Pacvue to align brands that advertise on its website with the appropriate ecommerce customers during the right times. In January, the retailer upgraded its in-store robotic scrubbers with additional capabilities that capture data such as pricing accuracy, planogram compliance and stock levels as the machines move throughout the stores.
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“Through innovation, iteration, and failing fast, Sam’s has staked its claim as a disruptive retailer — with a member-obsessed vision,” said Martin Granstrom VP, Head of Product Design and Research for Sam’s Club in a statement. “This is the first dedicated space at Sam’s Club for innovating, creating and collaborating. A building where all associates are welcomed and encouraged to pitch, develop and curate new ideas for the better of our business.”
