Megan Crozier’s job as Sam’s Club chief merchant is to find the best, highest quality items for members at the very best price.
“Every day in retail, you get a report card. ‘Are we happy or sad today based on what our members tell us?’” Crozier says on this episode of Retail Gets Real. “I love that real-time feedback and love delighting members and finding things that they are excited about and — right now especially — giving them opportunities to save money and find value.”
Sam’s Club is known for its membership model, opening its first discount warehouse in Midwest City, Okla., in 1983. Today, the retail warehouse has 600 locations across the United States and Puerto Rico. But it only carries some 4,500 SKUs, which includes a mix of national brands and private label goods.
Over the last three years, Crozier and her team have worked on reimagining the company’s Member’s Mark product line to become a purpose-driven brand that focuses on sustainability. “I’ve been in this role to really elevate the quality of it, to make sure it truly stands for what our members want,” Crozier says. “It can stand for innovation. It can stand for extreme value. It can stand for features and benefits that you just can’t find anywhere else.”
Digitally engaged members are key to Sam’s Club’s success, and Crozier is excited about the future of retail technology, including artificial intelligence and solutions that allow staff and suppliers to focus more on members.
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“We should use AI to help make the mundane faster, make it easier and honestly sometimes more accurate, so then we can go spend our time on more member-centric actions,” she says. “It’s nothing we should be scared about. We should look at it as like this friend that can help us make our jobs easier.”
While technology already exists to allow members to scan items with their phones and check out faster, Crozier wants to make shopping even more personalized and informative while members have their phone in their hand.
“Every item at Sam’s Club has an exciting story, and it makes you fall in love with the item even more,” she says. “I want to figure out how to unlock that digitally.”
Listen to the full podcast to hear more about Crozier’s 20-year career journey starting as an engineer at a Walmart distribution center in Temple, Texas, how she leads through a time of accelerated change, and how member engagement is the guiding force for what her team does every day.
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