The best practice for click and collect stores is “customer-centricity” vs product fulfillment. The single greatest opportunity and challenge for click and collect stores is to make the customer experience outstanding. Yes, that starts with rapid fulfillment of the product ordered. But the customer came to the store for a reason … and that creates an amazing touchpoint opportunity for staff to interact and assist customers beyond processing orders.

The most successful retailers with click and collect are seeing this as a new opportunity to upgrade staff from “cashiers” to customer engagement staff who can create a face-to-face experience that can not be found online.

I can’t imagine a quicker way to say you are in a dead-end job than by making you a warehouse picker in a retail store. I think the divided loyalties between online and in-store plunge customer service levels at peak times. With an earlier RetailWire story reporting that abandonment issues on BOPIS are running upwards of 40 percent I have to ask how effectively this could be managed and I wonder how this will impact turnover rates.

The implications of click and collect or ship-from-store for the store operations organizations are anything but trivial. There is additional technology to be installed, training to be done, packaging materials to be stocked, contracts with delivery or courier services to be negotiated and one or two things I may have left out inadvertently. As much as retailers are conceptually eager to provide this type of services, it will be disruptive until processes are streamlined and skills are honed. And — by the way — there is no free lunch, this will cost retailers in addition. Some businesses may have to dedicate part of a full-time equivalent to these functions in every store.

Click and collect/ship-from-store is a logical extension of online selling and provides brick-and-mortar retailers with an advantage that pure-play online retailers don’t have — many physical distribution points. Offering these types of services will be increasingly important as consumers demand convenience and competitive pressure forces the issue, however effectively executing will be a challenge for many retailers. A poorly executed program could cause more harm than good. I believe that retailers who can effectively executive these programs will have a competitive advantage in the short-to-mid term.

While these programs are logical and perhaps even inevitable, what is certain is that when implemented, they will change the nature and intent of visits to brick-and-mortar stores. Store traffic and conversion rate analysis will become more nuanced and interpretation more challenging.

Click and collect can be a great differentiator and a great opportunity if done right. There must also be adequate staff with clear responsibilities to make it work. I have heard that there have been grumblings from store employees about becoming warehouse pickers and packers. The picking part is a bit of a whine since staff are constantly putting things back on the shelf and helping shoppers find what they are looking for, but I would agree that a person hired as store staff might not be the right person to handle packing.

Bottom-line though, in this world of ever increasing online shopping and delivery, a chance to actually connect with the consumer can make a huge difference. And faster home delivery service can do wonders for the reputation.

This is one retailers will need to get right, for my 2 cents!

Although this doesn’t apply to my store, as we are not set up to do it right, BOPIS is not for everybody. You must commit to redoing your operations with some major capital expenses, and the consumer is not willing to pay more than the listed price in the store for what they want you to do. Is the front of your store safe enough to put in a special pick up lane without causing problems with the local fire departments, who enforce the safety clearances at your store entrance? This is an issue around here, and even Walmart is slowly getting up to speed, by investing in a safe area, specifically designed for BOPIS, without creating congestion at their entrances. Training the help to pull this off is a huge concern, as it has to be right the first time or you risk losing consumers — they have no patience for screw ups. If I was much younger, I would build a modern store from the ground up that actually is fully engaged with… Read more »

The associate job description isn’t the only thing that changes, the entire retail distribution model changes with it. The half-full side says that retailers, particularly chain store retailers, have a physical plant close to the customer capable of displaying great products and getting them to the customer any way the customer wants to be served and delivered” rapidly and (in theory) cost effectively. The other news is that the physical plant isn’t set up to do the job it now needs to do. The store of the future is a traditional store, walk in mail box, and distribution center, with associates trained to do all of the jobs. Scary to some, reinvention of retail to others. It all changes now.

This is an excellent subject to discuss, even if it is a gnarly problem. I don’t think the REAL fundamental problem has been addressed, nor the REAL fundamental opportunity seized, although I do appreciate the positive efforts forward, and the obvious progress. But this is NOT simple. Nonetheless, even weak, stumbling solutions are being made in the right direction. Note this from the report: “ship-from-store has distinct benefits . . .” There are 3 potential benefits listed, with varying degrees of meeting reality: 1. “Reducing pressure on fulfillment centers during periods of high demand.” This is vastly offset by the massive additional cost of fulfillment within the stores. Bear in mind that Brian Cornell is truly a merchant warehouseman accustomed to relying on unpaid stock-pickers, aka SHOPPERS, to pick the stock in the stores. Moving to decentralized PAID staff in a less than efficiently laid out store is a questionable method to compete with highly automated, partially robotic centralized warehousing. Whether Target’s distribution can approach Amazon’s is a whole ‘nuther matter. 2. “Cutting shipping costs.”… Read more »

This has already become “table stakes” in the retail biz in the U.S. Those that are making this work have a deep commitment at store level and ensure the staff put high priority on managing incoming online orders. I had a great experience at Target this week with such an order. Stress-free.

Convenience is a factor. If it is easy to go online and have a quick in-store pickup, savvy customers will use the service. And, as for best practices for attending to customers who do come into the store, just to pick up? Continue to deliver the same (hopefully high) levels of service you’ve always delivered. An in-store pickup is an opportunity to engage, even if it is minimal. Try to create a connection. It’s what will get the customer to come back next time.