Click & Collect – Why Retailers are Opting for this Model

[#1]

Retailers these days have started or starting to realize the benefit of Online and offline/in-store sales. This is the reason, most of the brands have started adopting “Click & Collect” model for their business, as it is seen that it improves customer experience as well as chances of cross conversion (according to a study, ~50% of the buyers who visited the store to collect their online order ended up making another purchase at the store).

According to a report, 70% of digital buyers predicted to use click & collect service in 2020. Grown from 57.7% in 2017.

To make most of out from any online activity, retailers are optimizing every online funnel of a user, looking at the growth rate of how inclined buyers are towards opting this ‘Click & Collection’ while making any purchase decisions online. Advertisers now are tracking and optimizing their paid activities on this as well, later in the blog you will read about few areas to consider for creating a ‘Click & Collect’ campaign. 

What is the Click and Collect Model?

Click & Collect is a hybrid e-commerce model where customer makes a purchase online and choose to collect the purchase at a pre-chosen location rather than choosing it to be delivered at their doorstep. Isn’t it amazing for any working individual, who can’t be at home to collect the delivery but can choose a location and can pick-up the parcel while driving back home? The model is as simple as, buyer who makes a purchase online and opted for ‘Click & Collect’, will be notified when the order is ready and all they have to do is go to their pre-chosen location as per their convenience and pick up the order. eBay is among a lot of big brands who are following this model.

Currently this model is adopted mainly in Europe –France & UK specially and is growing quite significantly year on year.

Like every other model there are both pros and cons (or limitations) of this model, which you will read later in this blog. First, let’s discuss different ways of implementing this model.

Companies are implementing this model in three main ways:

• Customers pickup items at a third-party location such as 7-11 (a Japanese-American international chain of convenience stores) or dedicated shops
• Designated stores are selected by customers where they can pick up items
• Customers pickup from a centralized click and collect hub, such as an outdoor drive through

Now, lets talk about some of the benefits of “Click and Collect” model.

Benefits from ‘Buyers’ point of view:

• One of the benefits of this model that attracts any buyer is that they can save on shipping cost
• Another important benefit is ‘Convenience/Flexibility’, this model helps buyer to collect the parcel as their convenience rather than waiting at home/office to get it delivered
• Assurance – this model allows buyers to inspect the product (Colour, fabric etc) before committing to purchase the item

Benefits from ‘Retailer’s point of view:

• Cross Sell: One of the biggest benefits of this model from retailer’s perspective is cross selling, most of the buyers when visit the store to collect their online order end up making an additional purchase
• Cost Saving – Though retailer might have to spend additional cost to set up pickup points/store for buyers, but it will save the cost of shipping

Though most of the retailers have started investing in this model or are planning to invest in near future, there are few limitations/challenges that retailers might face

• Main challenge for retailers sometimes is additional cost in setting up ‘Click & Collect’ hub or resources/manpower to manage it. If the retailers are seeing high/steady orders, they are able to make profit but retailers detailing with very low-ticket items like grocery sometimes face challenge as packaging/manpower costs more than the actual ticket item.
• Retailer should maintain their stock tightly and make the process seamless. Otherwise, they end up disappointing the customer

By now, you might have understood what ‘Click & Collect’ model and few limitations attached to it. But what if you are planning a paid activity using this model, here are few points to consider:

• First thing we need to make sure is we have clear details on site about both the available purchase options i.e. ‘Order online and get it delivered’ and ‘order online & collect by yourself’ along with other required details like available pick up points (attaching Google maps of the locations is a plus point)
• Start tracking ‘Click & Collect’ details in your analytics and set it as one of the goals for campaign optimization
• Include and promote this in ad copies/extensions to attract more users
• Ingest offline data and create similar audience to help increase the sales

My take on this, in this rapidly changing industry you need to be competitive and keep innovating. Click and Collect is a next step to provide better user experience , though it will take some efforts from retailer’s  side to setup and maintain this process (specially for small businesses) but at the end it’s all about providing one of a kind experience to our customers by giving them options either to get the product delivered at their doorstep or they can pick as per their convenience.  This helps improve brand loyalty and contribute on cross selling.

What’s you take on ‘Click & Collect’ model, feel free to share in the comment below.

[#2]

@shutiwar  Nice article on Click & collect. Good read!

[#3]

Nice post.