All Retailers are striving to join up the Online and in Store parts of their estate one way or another.
All online stores ship goods to a customer, the website is designed to entice customers to spend more or consider buying items they weren’t originally interested in. This linked with ever simplified procedures to return goods with no questions asked, online shopping is becoming the ability to satisfy your need to buy but without the commitment to actually keep it.
Then we have the option Buy and Collect, often its still shipped from the eCommerce warehouse in a sealed package to be collected all packed in a sealed bag the next day, still costing the Retailer to Pick, Pack and dispatch.
Finally there’s Reserve and Collect where with no commitment from the Customer the Retailer agrees to hold the stock for a period of time, although the Retailer has to ensure they have sufficient inventory available and/or an approach to removing the items from sale.
With these 3 scenarios I would be fairly sure that as we move down the options so the rate of returns reduces but also the opportunities to engage with the customer and upsell increase, with both the collection options the Customer is actually coming into your store and the Retailer knows what the Customer is coming to collect not only that if you eCommerce site is well managed your should also know what else the Customer has been looking at, what they have in their Basket, what other customers have bought.
So what does the Retailer do with this knowledge / insight and opportunity? …… In my experience nothing ……. Is this what the Customer wants? Does the customer know the answer to this?
How many Retailers offer further incentives to spend a little more time in the store when collecting, not necessarily financial incentives, even something simple to start with…
Taking a look at the Reserve and Collect purchase route, normally this forms a fairly standard process
- Browsing online
- Checking stock at your local store
- Placing a reservation – With Email Address and Phone Number – Even a new Customer becomes a trackable entity now.
- Reservation confirmation
- Confirmation that’s the item(s) are ready to collect (not all do this, if the item is actually picked ready this normally is sent)
- Customer visits the store and spends a few minutes trying to find where (and often someone) to collect from
- Payment
- Customer leaves
What would happen though if at step 5 instead of a generic email / SMS telling you your goods are ready to collect you instead received a personalised email / sms telling you that your items, lets assume clothing, are ready to collect from the fitting room on the 1st floor inviting the customer to try on their purchase and giving the sales staff in the store the ability to select some complimentary products or even a couple of the other items the customer has been looking at.
This approach wouldn’t appeal to all, especially if collecting on behalf of someone else, so a simple link or response option in the SMS to say thanks but I’d rather collect from the Till Point would prevent it becoming an uncomfortable situation.
Why do so many Retailers miss this opportunity to engage with the Customer they have fought so hard to get, spent so much to know what they like and what they want and then let then walk out of the store without even trying to show them personally how they know them and what they want.