Sam’s Club recently announced that following two years of testing, upgrading and adjustment, it has established a network of optical centers, hearing aid centers and health centers at its stores across China. Built around the concept of general health, these centers will cover all 36 Sam’s Clubs in 23 Chinese cities by the end of this year. This will make Sam’s Club the first club retailer in China to run a high-end network nationwide, which will allow more than 3 million members and their families to enjoy free access to professional hearing and eyesight test and consultancy, professional hearing aid wearing, health consultancy and other exclusive services. At the same time, Sam’s Club is also proactively leveraging its global sourcing resources and the bargaining advantage of its club model to bring to competitively priced health center products, especially the products of international well-known brands, to its members.

As early as 2019, Sam’s Club introduced its Optical Center and Hearing Aid Center, becoming the first retail club brand in China to offer such product categories. Zhang Qing, Chief Procurement Officer at Sam’s Club, remarked, "Our aim to provide health centers is to meet the needs of our members. We have set up professional teams and invested considerable time, resources and efforts to study and develop goods and services. For example, we allocate highly professional equipment and personnel for glasses, and choose high-quality products that can offer high value to our members. At the same time, as China's aging population increases, people pay more attention to some "goods" such as hearing aids for elderly people. We strive to provide our members with relevant high-quality goods by making advance layout and cultivate relevant teams and goods." 

All Sam’s Clubs are expected to have their high-end and professional health centers by the end of the year

Professional teams provide services and help members to make good choices 

Glasses and hearing aids are highly specialized goods, and members do need the advice and assistance of professional teams. As the first club retailer in China to set up hearing aid centers, Sam’s Club has introduced high-end professional brands OTICON and Lucid, with Lucid products being only sold at Sam’s clubs. To enable members to enjoy professional hearing testing services, Sam's hearing aid centers adopt more comprehensive and professional instruments and equipment, such as in-ear audiometer, real ear analysis and hearing aid analyzer, and all Sam’s hearing aid fitting engineers are required to hold a national qualification certificate, major in audiology or are doctors in otolaryngology.

Fitting glasses is not uncommon in retail stores. However, Sam’s Club places great emphasis on "professionalism". By providing professional optometry equipment, optical instruments, and professional optometrists, it can accurately discover user needs, provide in-depth and comprehensive personal eye health analyses for precision glasses matching, and customize exclusive glasses.

Sam’s Club always chooses professional and high-end world-famous brands, stressing that quality is for ever more important than quantity. From 63 countries and regions, it has selected for members more suitable brands, including Lindberg, Silhouette and Ic!berlin, which are long-established names in the optical industry. As for lenses, Sam’s optical centers select to purchase products from such professional lens brands as Zeiss, Nikon, and Hoya. It is worth mentioning that all the Zeiss lens selected by Sam’s Club will be processed by Zeiss itself and pass second-time quality inspection at Sam’s stores to ensure that the made glasses are truly of Zeiss quality. Sam’s Club is also one of the few retailers which can achieve "Zeiss lens, fitted by Zeiss ".

Professional hearing aids engineers make free hearing tests for members

According to Beijing Society of Audiology, there were 72 million people with severe hearing loss in China in 2017. The elderly people were the biggest group, estimated to be at 60 million. However, hearing aids are not widely used in China. There is also a lack of understanding about hearing aids. Given the situation, Sam’s Club hopes to encourage members, through its free hearing test services and professional hearing aid advice, to care for their parents' hearing condition and remind them to wear hearing aids in time. This will help alleviate the effect of hearing loss, improve the quality of life, and have good family time together. 

Lucid hearing aids are sold only in Sam’s Club

Youth optical centers are set up to provide professional solutions for teenagers

Sam's optical centers have introduced professional sports glasses and special glasses for children, two product categories that are easily ignored by ordinary glasses stores and merchants, so as to meet the more personalized needs of some members and provide targeted glasses solutions. For example, for teenagers' glasses, Sam’s Club has chosen Zeiss MyoVision® professional lens and Hoya MyoSmart® lens series designed to suit children's eye structure and lifestyle. 

High membership value

All products offered by Sam's optical centers have obvious price advantages. Package goods usually consist of well-known brand frames and professional lenses. For example, the Bolon fashionable frame + Hoya lenses package only costs RMB698, while the Coach frame + Nikon lens package is priced at just RMB1,299. Other packages are also available, such as the TRUSSARDI business package and the MCQ fashion package.

Premier members are entitled to an extra premier 10% discount on all items except package buys, contact lens-related products and special styles when they purchase glasses at Sam’s optical centers. In addition, leveraging its global procurement resources, Sam’s Club provides members with goods from highly fashionable luxury brands such as Gucci, Dior, YSL, Tom Ford, Bottega, Veneta, Bvlgari, Chopard and Charmant.