June 4, 2021 
Introduction:
Ever since the emergence of eCommerce, it has been taking a heavy toll on brick-and-mortar stores. There were numerous debates about how eCommerce was slowly killing physical retail shops. In the heyday of eCommerce, many online destinations were gaining significant market share against their brick-and-mortar counterparts due to a combination of lower prices and convenient shipping. The question is when consumers could buy everything from groceries to electronics online, so why go into a store at all?
Click-and-collect in Omnichannel Strategy – A Game Changer for Retail:
No longer do shoppers need to do all their shopping at a single location, carrying everything in a giant bag or cart, but they can now shop from wherever works best for them. For some shoppers, eCommerce allows them to buy products without ever once having to leave their homes or offices. Active wear brand Outdoor Voices saw this firsthand when they accidentally eliminated their “click and collect” option in late 2014. In an interview with CIO Magazine, CEO Tyler Haney shared that as a result of removing the feature, sales decreased by 30 per cent!
Current Landscape:
With the emergence of BOPIS (Buy online, pick up in store), you need to reconsider your omnichannel strategy. Brick-and-mortar retailers need to add clicks and collection points to deliver an experience that makes it easy for their customers to buy. Nevertheless, before the last holiday shopping season, traditional retailers did not know this omnichannel strategy called “click and collect” could help them drive more profits as well as stay more customer-focused.
Growing Popularity of Click & Collect:
The majority of customers are expecting a fast delivery service these days, particularly when it comes to click and collect services. Customer expectation is like a ratchet – they want more and more, and they want it faster than ever before. With customers increasingly expecting the click and collect experience to be as convenient as shopping online, retailers face a choice: do you invest in click and collect now and increase convenience for your customers and conversion rates or do you take a risk of falling behind competitors?
Facts & Figures:
Customer expectations have changed. Time in transit has shortened. Customers need a way to track their packages, and they want them quickly. Based on a study by Bell and Howell, 83% of consumers expect the ordered item to be ready within 24 hours while 60% of them place their order with the expectation that it will arrive within 4 hours.
Worldwide, consumers are increasingly turning to online ordering and pickup for speed and convenience, most online shoppers are favoring even same-day pickup. For example, click and collect sales grew by 155% as a percentage of the entire sales for multichannel retailers online between the years 2011-2015. Especially in the UK, this model is popular with a prediction by experts about the usage to be doubled by 2025.
Here’s how retailers can make the most of ‘Click-and-collect’ in Omnichannel Strategy to win competitive advantages.
- Click & Collect enhances the omnichannel customer experience, and this creates a more seamless customer experience by bringing online stores and brick-and-mortar into one ecosystem.
- Click & Collect function impacts positively the in-store traffic as picking up a digital order in-store will often result in additional purchases. The Bell & Howell study found that 49% of those who picked up their online order at a store, bought another item.
- Purchase intent is much higher for click-and-collect shoppers than it is for home delivery shoppers. On average, customers who opted for ‘click & collect’ have around 11% higher basket value than other home delivery shoppers.
- Delivering products to a physical location can save a lot of money. For instance, click & collect retailers can save at least 28% of total transportation costs by eliminating last-mile delivery.
- According to a study, 82% of buyers are more likely to buy online if they have an option to return the product in store. Click & collect gives retailers a chance to reduce their return rate by ensuring the customers are satisfied and happy with their order before they leave the store.
Store pickup is one of the most recent and effective ways retailers are promoting “omnichannel” shopper interaction. Not only can customers pick up items from the store. But they can also check out online, then receive an alert that their order is ready for pickup. This makes for a smooth and memorable experience for customers who prefer not to have their orders waiting on their doorsteps. Last year, Walmart saw a 70 per cent increase in its same-day pickup option, and UPS predicts that store pickup sales will reach 28 billion dollars by 2020.
However, you need to create an omnichannel strategy that not only includes the logistics involved in click and collect orders but also how store employees manage these sales and customer interactions. Creating this strategy requires understanding how in-store pickup improves customer satisfaction and what resources you have available to make it happen.
