Archive for August, 2014

The Why and How of In-Store Pickup

Posted by: Daniel Wednesday, August 27th, 2014

In-Store Pickup, BOPIS (Buy Online, Pickup In Store), Click and Collect, call it what you will, if you run a business selling offline as well as online and aren’t yet offering In-Store Pickup to your customers, it’s time to reconsider.

Focus on Convenience

Shopping online has always been driven by convenience. Either customers couldn’t find what they wanted at their local stores, they wanted to comparison-shop and like the ability to browse multiple stores in a few clicks, they may just love the ability to shop in their pajamas, or dozens of other reasons.

As eCommerce has matured, however, these advantages are taken for granted and it’s not enough to just offer your customers the option of buying your products from their couch. You need to find ways to differentiate yourself and add more value to your customer experience.

This is where In-Store Pickup comes in. Whether you have one location or a dozen, a certain percentage of your customers are likely local to your stores. Additionally, if you sell products which are heavy, bulky, or otherwise difficult to ship, in many cases allowing the customer to come pick up the item at your location just makes sense. Add to the mix the possibility of same-day pickup and you’ve got a simple way to get your products in the hands of your customers faster and more conveniently.

A Host of Other Reasons

While convenience for customers is the primary reason to offer In-Store Pickup, there are many secondary reasons that can be almost as important. Here are a few:

  • Increase Foot Traffic & Add-On Sales
    Every time a customer comes into your store you have an opportunity to convert that visit into a purchase. Studies have shown that, on average, over 30% of customers who come into shops to pick up an online order purchase additional items (Deloitte Consulting, MarketingProfs.com).
  • Lower Shipping Costs
    If you offer free shipping on your website, every customer who chooses In-Store Pickup is putting money back into your pocket. If you charge your customers for shipping, offering free In-Store Pickup can save them money, making your products even more competitive on price.
  • Find Local Customers
    You may have customers who live just down the road who have no idea that you have a retail location in their neck of the woods! Simply showing the option of In-Store Pickup in checkout gives you the chance to grow your local traffic.
  • Reduced Shipment Security Woes
    Especially in urban environments where a carrier may not be able to leave a package on a doorstep, it becomes important to offer an alternative delivery option. If you have locations in these areas you can solve this problem by preparing the order for In-Store Pickup and allowing the customer to pick up their order on their time-table while reducing non-deliverable return shipments or damaged shipments.

How it Works

Single-Location Retailers

If you’re a single-location retailer, offering In-Store Pickup couldn’t be easier. For customers who chose to pickup in store, you simply label and set aside those orders once you’ve picked them. All you need is a shelf or rack large enough to hold the number orders you’re likely to get. When a customer comes in to pick up their items, your checkout or customer service staff should be trained to retrieve and hand over those orders.

Multi-Location Retailers

One of the considerations for multi-location retailers is the fact that the store location the customer may have chosen on checkout may not be your fulfillment center. In that case, you’ll need to train staff at each location to identify, pick, and label in-store pickup orders. These may be pulled from stock on-site or brought in through your regular replenishment system if not all of your items are available at all locations. In either case, it’s simply a matter of informing your customer that their order is ready to be picked up via Magento’s order status email once it’s on-site.

Split-Operations Retailers & Ship-to-Store

If your online order fulfillment is done at one location without an attached retail location and you have one or more retail locations, you should consider offering ship-to-store fulfillment. In this case, your fulfillment center picks, packs, and ships the customer’s order to their chosen retail location. This requires little modification of your fulfillment process and offers all of the benefits of fulfilled-in-store In-Store Pickup, including cost savings on shipping. If required, you can even pass shipping charges on to your customers using live rates from a carrier or custom rates.

WebShopApps In-Store Pickup

The WebShopApps In-Store Pickup extension allows you to set up multiple locations and show them to your customers in a map on checkout. This extension also lets you limit where you offer In-Store Pickup with the option to show it only to customers within a specified distance from your locations. Plus, with the ability to use live carrier rates or custom rates as your pricing and offer your customers the option to choose the date and even a specific time slot for their pickup, you’ll manage your costs while offering customers expanded options. Find a full list of features, a live demo, and documentation on our WebShopApps In-Store Pickup extension page.