- Sam’s Club’s new AI-powered purchase verification technology is now in more than 120 locations across the United States.
- The Walmart-owned warehouse club claims to have helped shoppers get out the door 23% faster.
- Earlier this month, Amazon removed Just Walk Out from its largest grocery stores in favor of smart carts.
Sam’s Club’s new verification technology, which ditches physical checks of receipts in favor of AI-driven analysis of shoppers’ carts, has now been rolled out to more than 120 locations across the United States.
The Walmart-owned warehouse club told Business Insider that more than half of customers at technology-enabled locations use the pay-and-go option, helping all store shoppers get out the door 23% faster.
First unveiled in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, the futuristic gantries were tested in a handful of Sam’s Clubs before being rolled out more widely. Locations currently using the technology are in Texas, the Southwest and parts of the South and Midwest, Sam’s Club told BI, with additional stores in the South and Midwest coming soon.
The technology leverages the Scan and Go feature of the Sam’s Club app, allowing shoppers to place their orders themselves while they fill their cart and pay in the app.
Shoppers then wheel their carts across the large blue walkway where a set of cameras take photos of the products and compare them to the order, all without having to stop for the traditional physical check of the receipt by an associate.
“Exit technology and Scan & Go are driving new levels of convenience and increasing member satisfaction,” Todd Garner, Sam’s Club chief product officer, said in a statement. “What sets Sam’s Club apart from our competitors is our ability to seamlessly deploy this technology at scale across our nearly 600 clubs across the country. Whether it’s a single item or a basket, we’re revolutionizing the checkout experience.
Earlier this month, The Information reported that Amazon was removing its Just Walk Out technology from its largest grocery stores, including Fresh and Whole Foods, in favor of sensor-equipped Dash Carts.
Amazon said it will continue to roll out the frictionless JWO system in smaller format locations.
“It’s one thing to enable this type of simple checkout technology in a small-footprint store for a handful of items,” said Megan Crozier, chief merchandiser for Sam’s Club US, during the company’s presentation at CES in January. “But we’re doing it at scale.”
Sam’s Club says it still plans to roll out the big blue doors to all of its 599 U.S. locations by the end of the year.
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