Sam’s Club has seen good momentum by focusing on serving a target member and adhering to the fundamentals of the club model. Excluding fuel, comp sales for the year increased 3.8 percent, and eCommerce sales grew 27 percent. We are also making investments in people, products and technology that will help shape our future.
We have identified a target member, a suburban family with an income between $75K and $125K, and we are focusing on serving that member through the core areas of People, Products and Digital. We simplified membership into two tiers: Club and Plus and announced that Plus members would receive free shipping on Samsclub.com. Soon after, we saw a significant number of members upgrade to Plus.
suburban family with 
free shipping We raised compensation and expectations for senior merchants to improve retention, and we created a certification program for associates in our fresh departments. Targeted investments in new technologies are removing friction for both associates and members. We are the only warehouse club that allows members to scan and pay for items themselves, using their phone to skip the checkout lines. Member penetration of this offering, known as Scan & Go, continues to increase, and our members enjoy the convenience. We also launched new tools that automate manual processes across the business, allowing associates to spend more time on the floor. Associates are sharing ideas across clubs using Workplace, a tool that allows clubs to create and respond to posts, creating friendly competition in areas like merchandising.
