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This is part one of our three part series on the rise of Click & Collect, and how top retailers are using location technology for a frictionless collection experience.
Click & Collect, the ability for customers to purchase online and collect their items in store, is on the rise worldwide. Brick and mortar retailers are using their advantage of existing physical stores, to outrun pure online retailers.
Analysts all predict a continued rise in Click and Collect business, with Deloitte predicting that the number of click and collect locations in Europe will reach half a million in 2015, a 20% increase on last year. Top retail brands are reporting that between 10% and 40% of their online sales are Click and Collect. John Lewis stated that 56 percent of their online purchases last Christmas period were Click and Collect.
Why do customers love Click and Collect? Many customers cite the lack of delivery charge, but just as many say convenience is the key reason. People don’t want to spend their lives at home waiting for things to be delivered; they want to be able to collect their purchases when it is convenient to them.
As for retailers, the wins are many. They can leverage their existing stores to warehouse easily available stock, whilst increasing in-store traffic. In-store collection leads to additional in-store purchases. John Lewis customers that shop across both online and in-store, spend 3 times as much as those who shop in just one or the other.
The wins may be many, but the challenges in delivering a successful service can also be high. For a Click and Collect service to be successful, the online process needs to be user friendly and the collection process needs to be slick.
According to research completed by econsultancy.com, across the last Christmas period although 40% of the 2400 shoppers interviewed had a very positive experience of using click & collect services, 35% of shoppers encountered negative issues including:
- long waiting times due to a lack of in-store staff
- lack of a dedicated area in-store for click and collect purchases
- staff were unable to look or took a long time to source goods in-store.
As the retail world prepares for this years Christmas season, the smart ones are using the latest in location technology to address these issues.
To see exactly how Localz has done this for John Lewis, see our video.
Part 2 and 3 of this series will look at using beacons to streamline the collection process and reduce wait times, providing a frictionless customer experience.