Click and collect sales are expected to exceed $109 billion in 2024. This strong revenue-generating service line has proven to be an ideal option for online and physical stores wanting to grow both revenue and foot traffic. It’s now a key driver in sales of consumer goods, with over 78% of click and collect sales currently in grocery orders. However, many retailers are not yet familiar with click and collect, its processes, and the benefits of store pickup for business.
What is Click and Collect?
Click and collect is the system in which customers shop for and pay for their purchases online and then choose from multiple convenient options for picking up their items in the store. They can either pick up their purchases inside the store or directly in their cars from an employee who brings the items to a curbside pickup location.
How Does Click and Collect Work?
A big part of the appeal of click and collect services for customers is that they are so simple to use. The processes vary from one retailer to another, but the key to a successful system is the same for all. It is the ideal alignment of the online sales operation with the offline store’s pickup management and smooth order fulfillment.
The secret is to optimize the efficiency of your team and the quality of the customer experience in using click and collect services. The typical click and collect order and delivery process involves these basic steps:
- The customer completes an order online from a retailer’s website.
- The customer selects a date, time, and store location to pick up the purchase.
- The retailer’s team prepares the order and notifies the customer when it is ready.
- The customer presents an ID and order confirmation at the store and picks up the item.
- The seller’s system sends an order-completed notification to the customer.
- The seller’s system adds the purchase information to its base for future selling and reporting.
Depending on your practical considerations as a business, pickup locations can vary. You can provide designated stations for indoor pickup or provide customers with assigned order pickup lockers. Alternatively, you can offer curbside or parking-lot pickup spaces. Customers simply call your store to inform the staff that they have arrived. Then, your employees deliver the purchased items directly to the customers waiting in their vehicles at the designated pickup area.
To streamline any click and collect strategy, Magento store owners can rely on extensions such as Store Pickup and Store Pickup with Locator. The latter solution includes a map that displays all your physical locations, allows customers to choose one, and guides them with specific directions.
Click and Collect vs. Curbside Pickup vs. BOPIS
These three forms of retail ordering and fulfillment have elements of their definitions in common, but they also have important differences in how they work.
BOPIS
The Buy Online and Pickup In Store (BOPIS) option allows customers to select and pay for their purchases online and then pick up their items in the store. This method can be a big time-saver for busy people. It reduces time spent in the store and preserves the real-world shopping experience for the customer.
Curbside Pickup
Curbside pickup gives shoppers the option of choosing their items and paying for them online and then having their purchases brought outside to them for pickup at a curbside location. This enables customers to avoid going inside the store. It has become very popular with seniors and shoppers managing health risks.
Click & Collect
With click and collect, shoppers have both the in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup options available to them. They can enjoy the ultimate in flexible shopping. They have their choice of pickup arrangements — either going inside the store and likely browsing or relaxing in their car at the curbside.
Benefits of Click and Collect
Click and collect is rethinking the way retail customers shop. The benefits of this shopping method for consumers help increase retention rates for retailers. Some of the many key click and collect benefits for customers and retailers include these:
Click & Collect Benefits for Retailers
- Click and collect provides retailers with a robust new revenue channel. For example, Walmart has generated about 25% of its total revenues from click & collect over the past few years.
- Click and collect requires minimal resources to operate, making it an excellent alternative for smaller businesses with limited staff and workspace for shipping.
- Reportedly, over 80% of customers picking up their items ordered online buy additional products while they are in the store.
- The last mile of shipping and delivery cost is the most expensive by far. It’s often over 50% of the total shipping cost! With the store pickup option, retailers can fulfill customers’ orders at a significantly lower cost than by home delivery.
- Retail customers control the process and are not at risk of shipping delays from routing errors or scheduling issues that so often negatively impact the customer experience.
- Technology supporting click and collect systems optimizes the efficiency of fulfillment processes and communications with customers on their order changes, status, etc.
Click & Collect Benefits for Customers
- Click and collect services substantially upgrade customer experience by combining the superior convenience of online shopping and receiving ordered products on the same day.
- The ease of access to product information online is incomparable with the struggle to find just a fraction of the product and availability information in the store.
- There’s no more risk of spending time shopping for a certain product only to find it not in stock.
- Double-sized shopping baskets brought to the curbside help increase customer satisfaction when using click & collect.
- Customers no longer must choose either online or in-store shopping. This gives them the flexibility to do both anytime. They can also avoid interacting with people if they wish by using curbside pickup.
Who Uses Click and Collect
The convenience for customers, the improvement in customer satisfaction and retention rates, and cost savings have motivated retailers of all types and sizes to start their own click and collect programs. It’s not surprising that national US chains including Target, Walmart, and Best Buy offer click and collect.
But an ever-growing number of small retailers throughout the country are providing these services too. Home product sellers, clothing stores, grocery markets, and restaurants all offer suitable frameworks for the integration of click and collect services to complement their online sales functions.
Over recent years, US consumers have eagerly habituated their use of click and collect shopping services. Therefore, as a retailer you should adopt or improve the click and collect processes to ensure maximum efficiency and the best possible customer experience.
When is Click & Collect a Strong Choice for a Retailer?
In case one or more of the conditions listed below apply to your retail business, you should consider implementing a click and collect system:
- If you have both a sales website and a physical retail store.
- If you plan to grow your business online and offline.
- If you determine that you can increase revenues by adding click and collect services.
- If you need new ways to optimize your strategic plan for retaining consumers.
New adopters of click & collect purchasing methods are typically people who have usually shopped in stores more than online. They value the added personal control they gain over their experience with the retailers whose businesses they patronize.
Click & Collect Best Practices
For retailers, offering hybrid shopping options enables them to engage with customers. It opens endless opportunities to optimize the customer experience and build relationships, vs. being blocked from any chance of contact with them in a fully remote buying process. Further, it’s a more eco-friendly option and the opportunity to use contactless delivery.
But as with any service program, you need to provide the highest quality and overall value of click and collect services within your business's means. To benefit your customers and your business objectives, follow these industry best practices:
- Display inventory availability on your product webpages.
- Include an option to reserve items that are in stock.
- Include a clear explanation of how the product works.
- Offer the click and collect clearly on the shopping cart page.
- Stage products for quick, convenient same-day pickup, if available.
- Ensure online ordering and pickup scheduling processes from any device.
- Provide online customers with all options to give them maximum flexibility.
Wrapping Up
From retail giants to small shops, shoe stores to supermarkets, and clothing stores to cafes, the retail consumer market has made clear its preference for click and collect options. With the shift of a large part of the retail consumer market to online purchase and delivery, click and collect presents a path for merchants to regain in-store customer engagement and promote increased local spending.
Of course, not unlike any new revenue generator you may implement, there are upfront cost considerations and preparations to be made for click and collect systems. So, do your research before you launch your new services. Examine your inventory management system. Modify your supply chain, warehousing, parking, traffic routing, and other infrastructure, and adjust your operational systems to ensure compatibility with the services you plan to offer.
Conduct the necessary training, including practice sessions. Put clear, concise, thorough written policies in place. Then, roll out your new automated click and collect ordering system as an incomparably convenient and cost-efficient new service feature for your customers.
