App visits to Costco's platform leapt 63 percent year over year in 2026 — the single most commercially significant behavioral metric in Costco's digital ecosystem, communicating that the member community has discovered something that the casual warehouse shopper has not yet acted on: the Costco app is not just a digital membership card. It is the most commercially useful tool available for maximizing the value of a Costco membership. Most Costco members use the app for two th

2026 has brought a larger wave of operational changes to Costco than shoppers have seen in years. Many of the updates affect everyday parts of a warehouse visit — entering the building, checking out, ordering food, and returning purchases. While most of these policies reinforce existing rules rather than introducing entirely new ones, they may surprise members who have not visited the company recently. The good news is that nearly every change is designed to improve security,

The Costco app is the most underused tool in the Costco member ecosystem. Most members who have it use it for one or two things — checking the current Member Savings coupon book, or viewing their digital membership card when they have forgotten their physical card. A small, more commercially savvy group of members uses it as a complete shopping and membership management platform that handles everything from prescription refills to custom cake orders to contactless payment at

The Costco digital strategy 2026 is producing results that are reshaping the retail industry's understanding of what a warehouse club can accomplish in the digital space. In Q2 fiscal year 2026, digitally-enabled comparable sales grew 22.6 percent year over year — more than three times the pace of overall comparable sales growth of 9.1 percent. App visits surged 63 percent. E-commerce site traffic rose 32 percent. Mobile app engagement climbed 45 percent. And AI-powered perso

For most of its four-decade history, Costco has been understood as the ultimate physical retail experience — a place where discovery happens in person, where sampling converts browsers into buyers, and where the treasure hunt of finding something new and exciting on a warehouse shelf is the core of the membership value proposition. That identity has not changed. But in 2026, something significant is happening alongside the physical warehouse experience that every brand buildi