Reimagine Retail

Reimagine Retail with Martin Granström, VP Head of Product Design & Research at Sam’s Club

In this week’s episode of “Masters of MAX,” host Tom Butta has an exciting conversation with Martin Granström, head of design for retail giant, Sam’s Club. During his 20+ years in product design and UX, Martin’s journey has taken him from implementing error handling systems for nuclear plants to leading design teams at Sony Mobile and redefining the retail experience at Sam’s Club. Martin shares valuable insights on creating a cohesive and intuitive cross-channel customer experience with physical and digital design. 

Short on time? Here are five key takeaways from the conversation. 

Foster Designer Engagement & Innovation Through Cross-Functional Collaboration 

The secret to fostering designer engagement and innovation is through cross-functional collaboration. Martin shares how Sam’s Club encourages designers to expose themselves to a varied set of problems to solve and collaborate with different segments on a bi-weekly basis. He emphasizes how innovation is a continuous process that should come from energy, collaboration and inspiration to solve problems creatively. 

Leverage Physical and Digital Design in Customer Journey Mapping 

Seamless customer journey mapping is a combination of physical and digital design. 

Martin shares, “One of the things that we’ve seen and that has evolved over the years is that combination of physical and digital design. For retail, it’s very relevant, just because as a customer, as a member, you do both. And why wouldn’t we, as experienced creators, think about both holistically?” 

Curating relevant customer experiences isn’t just about where customers make a purchase—it’s about how you engage with them at every touchpoint. Whether through mobile app personalization, in-store support, push notifications or your website, meeting your customers where they are is the key to orchestrating a truly connected experience. A customer experience platform allows you to use customer journey mapping to deliver relevant moments to your customers. 

Break Down Silos and Test With Audience Segmentation

As the retail industry continues to evolve, finding ways to integrate physical and digital is critical. Sam’s Club’s Reimagine Retail conference breaks down silos by encouraging cross-functional collaboration amongst customer experience teams. Together, they solve problems and test with audience segmentation to develop innovative solutions to refine the cross-channel customer experience. 

Strengthen Brand Loyalty With a Well-Curated Physical and Mobile App Experience 

A well-designed physical space influences the mobile app experience, and vice versa. Martin shares how Sam’s Club’s new Clubhouse studio serves as an ideation workshop for everyone to build, test, and iterate new ways to improve the customer experience and build loyalty. The connection between the physical and digital world is evident in the Sam’s Club’s Scan & Go™ app, offering a personalized cross-channel customer experience as they use it to find products in the store.  

Deliver a Cross-Channel Customer Experience With a Cohesive Design System

A unified design system is essential to improve your cross-channel customer experience. Martin explains how Sam’s Club uses their design system, “Blue Steel,” to ensure the components on their app and web interface look and behave the same, creating a cohesive user experience. By implementing a design system in your customer experience platform, you can deliver faster, and more relevant customer experiences.