Sam’s Club claims retail industry first as it deploys AI powered exit technology at 120 plus locations

Sam’s Club reports significant progress in its roll-out of technology that resolves a key member concern - waiting in line for receipt verification to exit the club.

The retailer’s application of artificial intelligence and computer vision technology has been deployed in more than 120 clubs since first unveiling it at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January.

This is pitched as the largest-scale implementation of member facing AI powered technology in the retail industry.

Sam’s Club says that other retailers have struggled to deploy similar technology at scale, with some abandoning efforts, just starting initial pilots or having no plans to enhance customer experiences through check-out and store exit technologies.

In clubs where the technology has been deployed, more than half of members are getting the friction free exit experience. This translates to all members leaving the club 23% faster. Sam’s Club plans to deploy the exit technology to all of its clubs by the end of 2024.

It builds on existing digital solutions such as Scan & Go.

"I’m incredibly proud of the innovation and dedication of our team to deploy this member experience technology at scale," says Todd Garner, Chief Product Officer, Sam’s Club.

"Both exit technology and Scan & Go are driving new levels of convenience and raising member satisfaction among members. What distinguishes Sam’s Club from our competitors is our ability to seamlessly deploy this technology at scale across our nearly 600 clubs nationwide.”

“Whether it's a single item or a cartful, we're revolutionising the checkout experience."

Sam’s Club’s exit technology is used to confirm members have paid for all items in their shopping carts – without requiring an associate to check members’ purchases before leaving.

Prior to this technology, members were slowed by queuing at the club’s exit area to have member specialists review receipts and examine items in their carts.

Now after a member completes payment at a register or via Scan & Go, a combination of computer vision and digital technology deployed in the exit area of the club captures images of carts and verifies payment for all items within a member’s basket.

With AI constantly learning and improving across thousands of exit transactions at multiple locations, Sam’s Club says it will continue iterating and enhancing the technology as the deployment roll-out continues.