SAM’S CONNECT:
THE PINTEREST OF SMALL BUSINESS MARKETPLACES
Sam’s Club Innovation Jam Analysis: Case Study
Utilized design thinking processes, ideations, and research to enhance and innovate upon the 2020 Sam's Club Innovation Jam submission, Sam's Connect. I further utilized my insights and analysis to strengthen the effectiveness of Sam's Connect through the ideation of a Pinterest-style visual ad marketplace.
Project Duration: Twelve Weeks (August 2021-October 2021)
CASE STUDY SUMMARY
Quick Project Overview
TEAM ROLES
- Project Manager
- Project Researcher
OVERVIEW
Sam’s Club Innovation Jam:
Sam’s Club, a popular warehouse membership club, has a mission to provide its members with the highest quality bulk products at an exceptional value while sustaining an exclusive shopping experience. Each year, Sam’s Club challenges its associates in a competition known as “innovation Jams” which pushes associates to ideate creative solutions that will revolutionize Sam’s Club shopping experience for consumers, associates, and/or distributors. My team and I were tasked with reviewing and improving the most promising innovation jam ideas into “the next big idea” that will revolutionize Sam’s Club shopping experience.
SITUATION
Sam’s Club Innovation Jam:
While small business owners make up 43% of Sam’s Club’s members, they are not always treated with high priority or support. Also, there are few differentiating factors between Sam’s Club’s benefits to small businesses than other competitors, such as Costco. Sam’s Connect solves this problem by building a robust online marketplace for small business members to offer discounts and rewards on their products and services to other members.
TASKS
Personal
My role as a Project Researcher was to analyze the feasibility of the idea based on cost, growth, and technical excellence and to brainstorm improvements based on research on similar online marketplace alternatives for small businesses like Pinterest. I gained insights on the KPIs of small businesses utilizing them which helped me ideate a redesign of the online marketplace to a Pinterest-style visual ad marketplace for business members.
ACTION
Team
Analyze idea feasibility based on set criteria
Research alternatives from other companies and markets
Brainstorm and Ideate ideas for improvement
RESULTS
Worked With Director In:
Ideation of a Pinterest-style visual ad marketplace with verbal approval from Sam’s Club Senior Product Manager, Jonathan Saffian “…your idea of using the Pinterest style visual board is great”
Gaining actionable insights from Jonathan Saffian on ideations on new pivot points and partnerships in mind.
Planning provided through stakeholder insight to further evolve ideas via partnerships, data gathering, and ideations to improve mutual trust between small business partners and Sam’s Club.
WHO WHAT WOW
Through Sam’s Connect, Small Businesses can post products on a Pinterest-style visual board that increases Sam’s Club memberships while enhancing profits with up to 60% of customers more likely to purchase (source).
VALUE OF GATHERING AND VALIDATING DATA
Knowing what type of data to gather and if that data can generate new insights into problems
we never thought of before is key.
INSIGHTS
My team utilized general market research and insights on visual ad companies like Pinterest and their positive effects on small businesses in determining the validity of my idea of a Pinterest-style visual ad board.
During the project process, I found insights on Pinterest’s small business customers and learned that:
Customers are 3x more likely to investigate a brand and 60% more likely to purchase something off Pinterest when a product is featured there (source).
Over 90% of users view the Pinterest community as positive and 83% say it helps build their confidence (source).
Shoppers on Pinterest spend 80% more than people on other platforms every month (source).
These insights helped my team redefine the original solution from a marketplace to a visual board and inspired my idea of redesigning Sam’s Connect to a Pinterest-like visual board for small businesses.
MEMBERSHIP RETENTION AND EXPANSION IS KEY
Research and insights during the project process taught my team the critical success factor of maintaining a high growth of memberships while maintaining high retention rates is a key Sam’s Club success factor.
KEY SUCCESS FACTORS VERIFIED
My team's research into what Sam’s Club considers the most important was verified by Senior Product Manager Jonathan Saffian who found that as Sam’s Club has hit an all-time high for membership count, membership retention would be an ever-growing concern for Sam’s Club.
REDEFINING PROJECT DIRECTION
With this insight from our key stakeholder, our team set about brainstorming redesigning Sam’s Connect to prioritize raising membership experiences and retention rates which lead to a redesign based on my ideations into an online visual ads marketplace.
PARADIGM SHIFT IN PROJECT DIRECTION
My role as a Project Researcher was to analyze its feasibility based on cost, growth, and technical excellence and through that, brainstorm improvements based on research on similar online marketplace alternatives for small businesses like Pinterest. I gained insights on the KPIs of small businesses utilizing them which helped me ideate a redesign of the online marketplace to a Pinterest-style visual ad marketplace for business members.
ELEMENTS SUPPORTING INSIGHTS
My team conducted general market research on Sam’s Club's internals to determine what Sam’s Club considers its key KPI for success in the future with membership growth and membership retention being the key.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MUTUAL TRUST ON PARTNERSHIPS
“Sam’s Club may buy them [business partners] out directly or copy their idea and sell it at scale driving them out of business”
– Jonathan Saffian, Senior Product Manager, Sam’s Club
PAIN POINT
Small businesses do not have high trust for Sam’s Club due to their perception and market dominance.
VALUE OF MUTUAL TRUST IN ENGAGING WITH PARTNERSHIPS BETWEEN SAM’S CLUB AND SMALL BUSINESSES
My team came to this insight mainly through feedback from our main stakeholder, the Senior Product Manager at Sam’s Club, who said that smaller businesses and partners don’t have high trust in partnering with Sam’s Club due to their fear that “Sam’s may buy them out directly or copy their idea and sell it at scale driving them out of business”.
CHANGE OF THOUGHT FOR SOLUTIONS
This insight from the Senior Product Manager was a major pain point in the original Sam’s Connect idea which required a shift of thinking for the solution. This led back to our team brainstorming shifting our thought process to a solution that keeps small businesses front and center in the marketplace. This shift led to me ideating and leading my team to pursue a Pinterest-like visual board in our updated idea as Pinterest is well known, trusted, and liked in small business communities.
PERSONAL PARADIGM SHIFT
This shift in thinking provided a valuable lesson to always be aware of all sides in a design process noting their likes and dislikes as insight to continually improve ideas or pivot to a different one entirely.
VALUE OF FOCUSING ON SMALL BUSINESSES
“Other competitors have small-business-focused features for their memberships like Costco’s business centers which are focused on time savings while Sam’s Club is more general”
– Jonathan Saffian, Senior Product Manager, Sam’s Club
PAIN POINT
No differentiating factors for Sam’s Club that prioritize time savings for small businesses compared to competitors like Costco.
ELEMENTS SUPPORTING INSIGHTS
While small business owners make up 43% of Sam’s Club’s members, they are not always treated with high priority or support.
There are few differentiating factors between Sam’s Club’s benefits to small businesses compared with competitors, such as Costco.
INSIGHTS HIGHLIGHTING THE VALUE OF FOCUSING ON SMALL BUSINESSES
Through market research on Sam’s Clubs competitors and input by the Senior Product Manager at Sam’s Club, our team found that other competitors operate small business features for their memberships like Costco Business Centers which are focused on time savings while Sam’s Club is more general with their memberships which don’t really have any differentiating factors for small business members.
A SHIFT IN DESIGNING SOLUTIONS
This shifted my thought process from immediately designing solutions after defining the problem to one that first identifies insights through competitor analysis to determine areas of growth. This shift led to my ideation of the Pinterest-style visual ad board which was created on the premise to focus on solutions that raise member experiences of small businesses that feel that they do not get high priority through their memberships.
OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH
Through competitor analysis and stakeholder insights, my team found competitors have certain small-business-focused features that Sam’s Club does not offer which present an opportunity for growth in improving shopping experiences for small business members. This opportunity led to my Pinterest-style visual board which sets a clear differentiating factor of features for small business members between other competitors in the warehouse club industry.
FINDING BALANCE BETWEEN VISUAL BOARD COMMUNITIES AND KEEPING UNNECESSARY DIALOGUE OUT OF THAT COMMUNITY
“Online communities can bring toxicity”
-Jonathan Saffian, Senior Product Manager, Sam’s Club
FIND BALANCE BETWEEN IMPROVING ONLINE SHOPPING EXPERIENCES AND AVOIDING TOXIC COMMUNITIES
During the project process, I ideated solutions that focused on building a community of small businesses to increase member satisfaction but new insight from the Senior Product Manager at Sam’s Club on how they are trying to avoid that as “online communities can bring toxicity” highlighted a pain point in my team’s solution.
PAIN POINT
Online social media communities can bring toxicity and unnecessary dialogue into online communities worsening shopping experiences.
REDEFINING PROJECT DIRECTION
This changed the way I thought about online communities as a simple solution to any problem of unhappy member experiences and shifted my focus to raising small business member satisfaction through a platform that builds online communities but avoids the social media aspect of it.
PINTEREST-INSPIRED DESIGN
Through market research, I found Pinterest and how they describe themselves not as social media but as “a home of inspiration” for people looking for ideas through different offerings from small businesses. This shifted my idea from an online marketplace to a Pinterest-style visual board that sustains community without the social media aspect that can bring toxicity to it. This way, all online attention will be focused on the products offered via the visual ad board which will raise member experiences more than a solution including social media aspects to it (source).
STORYBOARD
Small businesses that have little traffic make an online post without comments through Pinterest-inspired Sam’s Connect which earns more foot traffic for the business when members see their page.
THE VALUE OF CHOOSING PARTNERSHIPS OVER CREATING NEW FEATURES IN-HOUSE
“Let’s find a way to leverage Pinterest’s features themselves through a partnership as they are leaders
in the visual board market”
– Jonathan Saffian, Senior Product Manager, Sam’s Club
FINDING BALANCE IN DESIGNING A SOLUTION INHOUSE OR PARTNERING WITH A COMPANY THAT OPERATES FEATURES SIMILAR TO THE SOLUTION
During the project process, I ideated a redesigned Sam’s Connect to be a Pinterest-style visual board for small business members to sell their products under Sam’s Club. Insight from Jonathan Saffian provided my team with a suggestion to find a way to leverage Pinterest’s features themselves which are leaders in the visual board market through partnerships instead of creating every feature in-house. With that, Sam’s Club can continue operating with what they are leaders in the warehousing industry and Pinterest can continue with what they are leaders in the visual advertising industry.
A SHIFT IN VISION
This insight caused a slight pivot in my idea to include two key choices for future development:
Continue ideation of developing the Pinterest-style visual board in-house which creates a clear differentiator compared to competitors.
Shift to leverage Pinterest’s relationships with small businesses which can save costs on development.
INSIGHT SUPPORTING A SHIFT IN VISION
Through insight from Jonathan Saffian, my design-thinking process on always designing solutions that involve in-house development over partnerships as they come off as more “intelligent” should not automatically be the default solution to problems as leveraging partnerships with Pinterest could unlock similar benefits without excess capital required from Sam’s Club to develop it which can raise more revenue.
SAVING ORDERING TIME FOR SMALL BUSINESSES IS KEY FOR A POSITIVE SHOPPING EXPERIENCE
“it’s about saving the business time in ordering”
– Jonathan Saffian, Senior Product Manager, Sam’s Club
PAIN POINT
No dedicated area under Sam’s Club that prioritizes driving time savings for small businesses compared to competitors like Costco.
SAVING TIME IN ORDERING CAN BECOME A KEY DIFFERENTIATOR AMONG COMPETITORS
Senior Product Manager Jonathan Saffian provided a valuable insight on small business consumers which is that small businesses value savings in ordering supplies and other competitors like Costco Business Centers operates areas for that while Sam’s Club does not have an alternative.
A SHIFT IN VISION
This inspired a shift in my research to find marketplaces that provide easy access for consumers to buy from small businesses that make ordering easy with Pinterest being my top preference.
RESULTS / VALIDATION FROM THE
SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER
“Should this be a new feature within Sam’s Club or can we leverage Pinterest in a way to closely partner with smaller businesses?”
-Jonathan Saffian, Senior Product Manager, Sam’s Club
CASE STUDY FULL GOOGLE DOCS
VIDEO: VALIDATION AND INSIGHT FROM JONATHAN SAFFIAN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHmqWaSmYg4 (links to YouTube)
IDEATE FURTHER ON WHETHER MY IDEA SHOULD BE DEVELOPED IN SAM’S CLUB OR LEVERAGED THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS
The Senior Project Manager of Innovation, Jonathan Saffian, provided two key choices of ideation for improvement which are to either:
Further develop this idea in-house which he sees as doable
Or find a way to leverage Pinterest’s relationships with small businesses as Pinterest is already a leader in that field and leveraging that could save costs of development.
THE KEY IS SAVING BUSINESSES TIME IN ORDERING SUPPLIES
Senior Product Manager Jonathan Saffian provided insight into what small businesses consider key in a positive shopping experience as “Saving time in ordering”. Saffian further provided insight on Costco Business Centers whose value proposition is designing a shopping experience “that drives time savings” for small businesses which Sam’s Club does not have an alternative yet.
INSIGHT ON NEW WAYS TO LEVERAGE SAM’S CLUB WITHIN PINTEREST AND VICE VERSA
In a brainstorming mode, Jonathan Saffian provided a new pivot of where to take my idea to find a way of “how Sam’s Club can better integrate with their relationship with Pinterest” through connecting a small business Pinterest account into Sam’s Club which automatically fills out an order through them whenever they make a purchase.
NEXT STEPS
Ideate ways to further leverage small business relationships with Pinterest to design a visual board that drives time savings whether designed in-house or through Pinterest.
Ideate through new insights of making time savings in ordering a key differentiator in designing a Pinterest-style visual board for small businesses.
Decide whether to design the Pinterest style visual board as a feature like plug-ins apps like Honey, or design through partnering with Pinterest.