Fill your shopping cart, and have your goods delivered to your doorstep. This is the ecommerce experience that Amazon and friends taught us to love, as marketers and customers alike.
According to recent research and developments, new kid on the block “click and collect” apparently scores far higher in customer satisfaction and sales. And is exactly what it sounds like. Customers can click on their computer or smartphone to make a purchase and are then welcome to pick up their goods in person. Too simple to work?
“The importance of click and collect should not be underestimated. It has become firmly established, with expenditure set to grow 82% from 2014 to 2019 to £6.5bn, with clothing and footwear making up over half of all sales. “
Is click and collect really such a big deal? Google Trends seems to agree:
Now let’s look at some data from Econsultancy:
- 80% of UK shoppers have used click and collect (up from 74% in 2011)
- 44% of UK shoppers always research purchases on the Internet before buying offline
- Just 4% never use the Internet for product research
- 43% of UK shoppers use smartphones to compare prices and read reviews (up from 19% last year)
The entire fast-food industry is slowly and quietly getting on board. McDonalds, Tesco, Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks, Dominoes, Taco Bell, KFC, etc. And what do they have in common? They stealthily try not to let their competition realise their success.
Benefits of click and collect:
- No shipping costs: According to a study by Forrester, 34% of respondents do not want to purchase goods online, due to high shipping costs.
- Flexible pick-up: Stores usually have longer opening times than the Post Office, shorter waiting times, and give you a better time-frame for picking up your goods.
- On-site customer support
- Secure payment
Other possible benefits, depending on the situation:
- Try before you buy: especially important for clothes, phones and electronic devices.
- Extra services
- Free returns: the pick-up point handles the returns
- Cash payment
Who is the target audience?
While the process of making a purchase is essentially the same, click and collect buyers are quite different. They spend more time and consideration picking their purchases, and only 12% travel more than half an hour to pick up their order. (However, because click and collect customers are more selective and careful in their purchases, it is slightly more difficult to also entice them with peripheral buys. Marketers, there’s your challenge!)