BJ’s Wholesale Club, headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, is a leading wholesale club operator on the East Coast of the United States. The Club is laser-focused in delivering a differentiated shopping experience that is further enhanced by innovative omni-channel capabilities. In the past year, BJ’s has added next-generation capabilities and new expertise to their executive team. 

Here are some things we’ve noticed about BJ’s incredible journey in providing outstanding customer service to its membership:

Data-Driven Marketing

BJ’s has boosted its promotional efforts with data-driven marketing by partnering with Adobe Adobe Experience Platform, part of Adobe Experience Cloud. By leveraging the platform, BJ’s expects to grow and retain its membership. Amidst Covid, BJ’s has increased its membership at record levels, leading to it skewing younger and more dependent on the digital landscape. The partnership with Adobe focuses on driving engagement and continues to demonstrate the value of membership through targeted marketing activities involving personalization, convenience, and value. 

“We’ve made transformational progress as a company in the last year and we’re building on that momentum by making strategic investments to provide the most value and convenience to our members,” said Paul Cichocki, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, BJ’s Wholesale Club. “By partnering with Adobe, we’re elevating our membership and marketing to deliver one, cohesive member journey across all touchpoints and better showcase the value of a BJ’s membership. With Adobe Experience Platform, we’ll meet our members where they are and with content and offers that are relevant to them.”

Voiced-Based Virtual Assistant

It’s not just the younger membership that received attention. The wholesale club retailer discovered its core shoppers have a higher median age than many other retailers. This fact informed the retailer’s approach to transform its digital customer experience through the implementation of a voice-based virtual assistant.

BJ’s partnered with digital experience solutions provider Everise to build and support an interactive voice response (IVR) and smart chatbot support tools designed to keep up with the ever surging support requests made primarily by an older customer demographic. Everise built a logic-driven knowledge base within BJ’s existing omni-channel support solution, adding natural language understanding mixed with voice and text-based interfaces. 

The technology from Everise helped BJ’s automate inbound and outbound call processes. After launch, the warehouse club retailer successfully diverted at least 50% of their incoming chat and call volume, saving time with the existing call center teams and effectively scaling to meet demand. 

Leadership Additions 

BJ’s has not only made technology changes but has expanded the expertise of their leadership team to help provide their membership with convenience and options. As BJ’s new Executive Vice President, Chief Merchandising Officer, Rachael Vegas is responsible for the strategic leadership of BJ’s merchandising and assortment planning and allocation functions. Reporting to Paul Cichnoki, Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, Vegas continues to build on the success of BJ’s own brands and expansion into high-demand categories. The company also shifted some internal folks to new positions. Tim Morningstar, previously BJ’s Senior Vice President, Membership Acquisition and Loyalty, assumed the role of Executive Vice President, Chief Membership Officer, and leads membership and marketing functions. Monica Schwartz was elevated to Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer and is responsible for the strategic leadership of BJ’s digital business. “With the appointments of Rachael, Tim, and Monica, we continue to strengthen our talented and experienced leadership team to drive the next phase of our transformation,” commented Bob Eddy, President, and Chief Executive Officer, BJ’s Wholesale Club. “This world-class team will play an integral role capitalizing on the opportunities ahead of us and driving long-term growth.”

Members Are Provided Lots of Ways to Shop

BJ’s appointed new leaders led the company to make progress in enhancing its merchandising assortment to offer greater value to its shoppers. Members can shop this holiday season with convenient shopping options, including in-club shopping, ship-to-home, same-day delivery, in-club pickup, and curbside pickup, providing a variety of ways for members to safely and comfortably shop how they want. Plus, BJ’s is offering members a flexible and convenient way to finance holiday purchases over $99 with its buy now, pay later payment option. The buy now, pay later option is available for purchases made on BJs.com for delivery, in-club pickup, and curbside pickup. Members can also use the flexible payment option while shopping in-club with the BJ’s app.

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