Sam’s Club creates personalized experiences via retail media network
Sam’s Club says it is creating the first "retail experience network."
The warehouse club retailer, a division of Walmart, is expanding the capabilities of its Sam’s Club Member Access Platform (MAP) retail media network to use first-party data to create personalized experiences through an offering called MAP’s Omni Experiences.
The new offering combines digital performance tactics like search and display with immersive experiences in and around media activations via channel, including online and in-store. These experiences can promote large-scale seasonal events, such as back-to-school, as well as smaller brand-led localized events.
Sam’s Club builds up retail media network
Sam’s Club has been bolstering its targeted ad capabilities. The retailer added display ads to the Scan & Go feature of its mobile app in July 2024, and began providing MAP participants full-funnel video advertising onsite, in-app and offsite in December 2023.
[READ MORE: Sam’s Club adds video to retail media network capabilities]
Other MAP features Sam’s Club has deployed in the past couple of years include measurable return on ad spend (ROAS) for omnichannel campaigns and connecting search and sponsored product ads to offline sales, as well as attribution of in-store purchases to advertisers’ search ads.
In addition, Sam’s Club offers the following features to MAP advertisers:
- Brand lift: Incorporates upper-funnel metrics, such as brand preference, favorability and purchase intent, into MAP’s existing conversion reporting. This enables brands to optimize campaigns around objectives such as product launches or new brand positioning.
- Customer lifetime value (CLTV): Integrating CLTV and longitudinal measurement, Sam’s Club intends to help brands better understand the full value of a consumer to refine their media strategies based on buyer segments, behaviors and potential long-term ROI.
- Multi-touch attribution (MTA): This AI-based feature offers unified measurement across all channels in an effort to help brands understand how every touchpoint contributes to conversion, supporting better planning and media mix optimization based on how customers actually move through the path to purchase.
- Propensity modeling with signal fidelity: Utilizing dynamic AI and machine learning, Sam’s Club predicts which MAP members are most likely to engage based on data such as past purchases, product preferences, demographics and shopping behavior. These models adapt based on category (e.g., consumables vs. beauty) and are designed to reduce irrelevant impressions.
What’s ahead
Sam’s Club is optimistic about the future of MAP. According to the retailer, nearly half of new member growth comes from Gen Z and millennial consumers, with about 40% of in-store shoppers engaging with its app or site the week before they buy.
Plans for the near future include launching new formats for connection, including influencer and creator-led content. For the first time, brands will be able to combine influencer marketing with MAP’s first-party data to deliver more targeted, effective campaigns, both online and in-store.
Sam’s Club is also exploring how generative AI can enhance customer experience, including smarter search and personalized product discovery. The goal is to help customers make faster, more informed decisions while enabling discovery.
"MAP is building more than media campaigns — we’re creating meaningful experiences that deliver real value for both members and brands," said Harvey Ma, VP & GM, Sam's Club Member Access Platform. "Our experience-driven approach is already resonating, with Sam’s Club recently ranking No. 1 among general merchandise retailers in the American Customer Satisfaction Index."
Bentonville, Ark.-based Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart Inc., operates nearly 600 stores in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
