Achieve Integrated Online-Offline Retail Media With Ease: Sam’s Club’s MAP & Skai

Over half of shoppers are likely to look at a product online and buy it in-store, and an overwhelming 81% of retail shoppers conduct online research before buying. 

So how can advertisers be sure they’re attributing sales correctly and accurately measuring return on ad spend (ROAS) and return on investment (ROI) if advertising and product-buying are in two different mediums? 

The answer: they can’t…unless they have a partner like MAP. 

The offline/online connection is absolutely essential for today’s retail brands

In an era where retail competition has surged to historic levels, connecting online and offline customer interactions has become vital for success. Today’s customers exist in a seamless world where they hop between digital and physical shopping without batting an eyelid. But, if marketers are only able to see one side of these multifaceted behaviors, they’re left with a half-painted picture, making it tough to strategize marketing investments effectively.

Integrating online and offline data acts can no longer be an afterthought to your marketing strategy. It brings the complete picture of the customer’s interaction with your brand into sharp focus, enabling you to offer personalized experiences that truly hit the mark. This combined data also refine your measurement of key metrics like ROAS and ROI, leading to smarter optimizations and decisions for more impactful advertising campaigns.

So, amidst the heat of global retail competition, merging online and offline data isn’t merely a trend—it’s essential. 

And customers are on board! 84% of consumers believe retailers should do more to integrate their online and offline channels.

The State of Retail Media 2023 provides a valuable snapshot of the current thinking and challenges that are on the minds of today’s marketing decision-makers.
Download your copy today!

Sam’s Club MAP offers unique offline/online opportunities

As you may have read in my previous post, The Role of Membership Warehouse Clubs in Omnichannel, Retail Media Success:

Because these retailers have such strong relationships with their members, they know what each one of their members buys, which opens up the opportunity to target them based on purchase history, demographics, recent purchases of similar items, and basket size for every member. It isn’t guessing and modeling an unknown user on behalf of advertisers.

The membership-only retail warehouse chain, Sam’s Club, has successfully leveraged the power of offline and online data integration via its retail media network, Sam’s Club Member Access Platform (MAP). Touting millions of Sam’s Club members and data on billions of transactions through its vast network of physical stores and e-commerce platforms, it integrates this information with online user behavior data, gaining a comprehensive understanding of its members.

With this data integration, Sam’s Club’s retail media platform allows brands to target members with personalized offers, ads, and in-store and online recommendations. This approach enables brands to reach customers at various touchpoints throughout their shopping journey, ensuring that the right message is delivered to the right person at the right time. The result is a more effective advertising campaign that drives higher engagement and conversions.

More importantly, connecting offline and online data can provide marketers with a holistic view of true, measurable campaign success. 

Previously, it was not possible for our advertisers to connect the in-club purchase to their online ads to know what drove sales. With our new attribution model, advertisers can understand what’s motivating purchases across all channels accurately, especially for search ads.” – Tim Simmons, Sr. VP and CPO, Sam’s Club 

This accurate version of ROI empowers marketers to optimize their campaigns effectively, allocate budgets more efficiently, and achieve better overall results.

Sam’s Club’s retail media strategy exemplifies the power of integrating offline and online data, equipping advertisers with a truer ROAS/ROI and enabling them to provide customers and prospects with a personalized and seamless advertising experience. 

Skai takes Sam’s Club’s unique insights a step further by providing advertisers with valuable insights and campaign optimization tactics for continued campaign management improvement.

The Power of online/offline insights from Sam’s Club MAP + Skai’s omnichannel, AI-driven platform

Skai incorporates rich data from Sam’s Club MAP into a single ad management platform that incorporates offline data and ties it to a brand’s holistic marketing view. “We’re excited to be connecting offline and online data so our advertisers can now get a complete picture of the effectiveness of their campaign efforts,” says Ronen Ezra, Sr Product Manager, Skai. “This makes running on Sam’s Club via Skai a no-brainer!”

Furthermore, you can utilize the amazing Skai features to drive performance like never before. Workflow efficiencies like bulk editing and campaign enhancements like rules-based bidding keep your campaigns operating at the highest level. 

As part of Skai’s omnichannel marketing platform, our Retail Media solution empowers brands to plan, execute, and measure digital campaigns that meet consumers when and where they shop. Built with best-in-class automation and optimization capabilities, our unified platform allows you to manage campaigns on 1000+ retailers, including Sam’s Club MAP but also Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Instacart, all in one place.

For more information on Skai’s integration with Sam’s Club MAP or to see our platform in action, please schedule a quick demo.

Even if you’re not ready just yet, staying on top of what’s available is always good. We look forward to working with you!

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