Sam’s Club and Mobile Technology

Founded by Sam Walton of Walmart fame in 1983 and is a division of Walmart, Sam’s Club is a popular membership warehouse club housing numerous items, such as foods, jewelry, books, and office chairs. Sam’s Club has recently made strategic use of mobile technology as a means of replacing the traditional retail experience with increased convenience for costumers. Since the launch of their mobile app in the 2010s, it has many features, according to Belic (2010), such as fast store location through GPS, and eValues, special discounts supplied by membership cards and notify users of any new offers being present.

Moreover, as of 2024, Sam’s Club has made a new feature for the app called Scan & Go, which lets users use the mobile app to scan items the retail store provides and as Carbonaro (2025) notes, all purchases are done through the app in real-time and then scanned by cameras to confirm if the purchase was legitimate, much like how a retailer uses a POS (point of scale) Scanner to convert or translate data and information from barcodes.

Additionally, Sam’s Club will also implement AI technology within the app, and as Dorgan (2025) notes, the action will replace the classic checkout way with a method called Just Walk/Just Go from this point onward. The new features of the mobile app will make shopping experiences for sellers and customers more seamless, consistent, and steadier within the retail store industry.

Furthermore, although Sam’s Club strategy is solid and offers an effective advantage to enhance the shopping experience, since the app is digital and has AI-based technology, it can likely spread misinformation or give inaccurate results, though these potential issues will likely be resolved through frequent updates and patches, given the mobile app’s popularity.

References

Dorgan, M. (2025, April 19). Sam’s club phasing out checkouts, betting big on Ai Shopping. FOX 5 Atlanta. https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/sams-club-phasing-out-checkouts-betting-big-ai-shopping

 

Carbonaro, G. (2025, April 17). Sam’s club axes self-checkouts nationwide, adds “Scan & Go.” Newsweek. https://www.newsweek.com/sams-club-axes-removes-self-checkouts-scan-go-2060883

 

Belic, D. (2010, November 9). Sam’s Club launches Android and BlackBerry Apps and a mobile website. IntoMobile. https://www.intomobile.com/2010/11/09/sams-club-android-blackberry-apps/