Dive Brief:

• Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s Sam’s Club unit Thursday released a poll of micro-business owners to measure their needs, and will conduct it quarterly to measure any changes.

• The first tracking poll, conducted through Gallup, revealed that many small and micro-businesses are run by women who are more likely to use their own funds, rather than bank loans, to finance their enterprises.

• Businesses with less than 500 employees, many of them much smaller, are on the rise, and many are members of wholesale clubs.

Dive Insight:

These Gallup surveys will be conducted and released publicly every quarter, which could be a great service to other retailers as well. Through this polling effort, Sam’s Club will reap valuable data on what the company defined as an important and growing segment of their customer base.