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Sam’s Club announced a new customer engagement community this week as part of Walmart Associate’s Week, according to a press release.
Known as the Member’s Mark Community, it enables customers to provide direct feedback on products from Sam’s Club’s in-house brand, Member’s Mark. It operates as a real-time feedback loop, allowing the community to taste or test Member’s Mark products before they hit the shelves.
The community’s been running in stealth mode already, and influenced how a new grill went to market. Members received various grill prototypes and provided feedback based on their experience, which Sam’s Club used to tweak some of the grill’s features.
The company expects the group to drive a more personalized shopping experience by finding out what customers want from products before they reach the stores.
“The Member’s Mark Community goes beyond traditional focus groups and surveys, with true engagement that will shape the future of retail by creating more personalized experiences for our members,” Megan Crozier, chief merchant at Sam’s Club, said.
After struggling to win over high-income customers in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal, Sam’s Club experienced record growth in 2022, fueled by strong sales that began during Covid-19. The Member’s Mark Community is the company’s latest customer-focused development; it recently began AI-enabled receipt scanning at select stores.