Online Shoppers Buy Online, Pickup Offline

10/07/2008

E-tailers are discovering that as online shopping becomes more popular, shoppers are revolutionizing the way it’s done. According to a recent Cross-Channel Shopping Study, many shoppers are now purchasing online and picking up those purchases offline – in an e-tailer’s brick-and-mortar store, for example.

Why the Evolution?

Internet marketing experts weigh in, saying that free shipping accounts for much of this. Ninety-six percent of e-tailers now offer free shipping to their store location; this is up 4% from last year. Merchants who stock products in a central location require more time to ship goods to a brick-and-mortar location. This has an impact on pickups – particularly same-day pickups.

In fact, merchants who offer same-day pickups have decreased from 73% of those who were surveyed last year, to 54% of those surveyed this year.

In-Store Pickup Equals Greater Consumer Convenience

Integrating pickup within the brick-and-mortar locations just makes more sense for e-tailers, in addition to it being more convenient for online shoppers on many levels.

The wait time for in-store pickup has improved for consumers as e-tailers continue to integrate their online and offline presences. It was down to almost three minutes (2:58), which is an improvement from the previous year.

And, as far as the product being in the store and ready when the customer went to pick it up? This happened 94% of the time, up from 83% of the time in 2007.

The study showed that merchants emailed the consumer with notification that products were ready for pickup 71% of the time this year, versus 52% of the time last year.

Following are some recommended customer service practices as it relates to in-store pickups for products ordered online:

**Make sure promoted products are in stock **Permit shoppers to assign designated persons to pick up for them **Have clear in-store signage directing shoppers to pickup location for online orders

Perhaps because of the successful integration of online buying and in-store pickup, many e-tailers are touting the advantages of it more and more. Some ways they are doing it is by giving it good visibility on their websites, pitching it on individual product pages, and sending it in emailed order confirmations.

For more insight visit eCommerce Development Services