Sam’s Club is making significant progress in its quest to use artificial intelligence to make it quicker and easier for shoppers to leave its stores.
About half of customers who visit the locations where it has deployed automated receipt-verification technology at exits now walk out without needing to show proof to an employee that they have paid for their purchases, the Walmart-owned club retailer announced Tuesday. In turn, that means that all shoppers at those stores are able to leave 23% faster than they were before Sam’s Club installed the systems, according to the company.
Sam’s Club developed the equipment to address what it said is a top complaint from shoppers — having to wait in line to present a paper receipt to a worker before being able to depart.
The chain has rolled out the technology, which uses computer vision to identify the items in people’s shopping carts and match them with their payments, to about 120 of its almost 600 locations since unveiling it in January. The club retailer said it intends to bring the technology to the rest of its stores by the end of the year.
Sam’s Club noted that the systems free workers who otherwise might be stationed at the door to examine the contents of shopping carts to instead help people as they shop. The company added that it expects to continue refining the technology as it gathers data about transactions at the growing number of stores where it has installed the gear.
The retailer called attention in its announcement to its success in bringing the receipt-verification equipment — as well as technology such as its popular Scan & Go gear — to a large number of stores.
“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 revolutionizing the checkout experience,” Sam’s Club Chief Product Officer Todd Garner said in a statement.
