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A unified eCommerce and Brick and Mortar experience can greatly benefit retailers. Omni-channel customers are valuable: They buy more often, and spend more per order. Specifically, Click & Collect lets you offer free delivery, reduce returns, and tap new sales from impulse purchases. In-store collection provides new ways to connect with customers and enhance their experience. Click & Collect also reduces the cost to increase customer retention, and boost brand loyalty. But only if you get it right.
If you are looking to implement a Click & Collect strategy or improve an existing one, there are some key considerations and best practices which Fluent Commerce can provide from working with Retailers across the globe, tried and tested strategies so you can achieve the greatest return on your investment.
Before you look for solutions or plan your Click & Collect project, it’s important to define how such a process fits with your overall omni-channel strategy.
There are three main ways a Click & Collect order can be fulfilled;
The faster an order is ready to collect, the better. However, you need to assess what’s really achievable and what rules to implement to ensure you don’t disappoint the customer.
If you want to offer in-store pickup within an hour, you need to ensure this collection time frame is only offered on available in-store stock. Fluent Commerce can support the configuration of these promise times. Also, ensure staff members are adequately notified of online orders in-store (via notification methods including alerts, calls, mobile messages, etc.) and trained and incentivized to deliver on this promise.
For items that aren’t available in the chosen store, ensure that you provide a realistic time frame on how quickly you can transfer stock to the chosen location. And don’t forget to expand these estimates for orders placed on weekends and holidays and consider the opening hours of stores in this calculation. Finally, ensure that all time frames are clearly displayed both before and after the buy button, on landing pages, and in emails and messages (via mobile, Facebook messenger, etc.) sent to the customer.
One of the big benefits of Click & Collect is that customers often make an additional purchase while in the store. It is important to ensure upsell opportunities are flagged to staff and they are trained to engage with customers meaningfully when they come and collect their orders. 40% of customers who choose Click & Collect do so because they want to avoid shipping fees. This is also an opportunity to introduce customers to loyalty programs or make them aware of potential in-store promotions which could entice the customer to make an additional purchase.
In an ideal world, a Click & Collect order will be fulfilled from the same store the customer has chosen as their pickup location. But this isn’t always possible. Items might not be in stock at the chosen location, or the store’s inventory might not give clear insight into what is available. Hence, sometimes, one or all items in an order must be transferred from a DC or another store. The additional cost of transfers from the DC or another store must be considered when planning a Click & Collect strategy.
You may also choose to let customers split their orders so they can receive some items quicker. This way, the customer can pick up part of the order as soon as it is available and come back for the rest at another time when it is available. Once again, this is a great way of giving your customers more options and convenience in how they shop. However, it needs to be balanced against the cost of shipping items from multiple locations. An order for high-value items might justify the expense of being split and fulfilled from multiple locations. An order containing a multitude of low-margin items might not warrant this process.
Fluent Order Orchestration…
The point at which you collect payment may depend on how an order is being fulfilled, or the region in which you are selling in.
Let’s look at some scenarios;
If you’re a retailer with separate branded stores, have you considered letting customers pick up an item they have purchased from Brand A in a store that only sells Brand B? This can work really well when one brand has a much larger store footprint than the other. In short, it provides an expanded network of collection points that can add more convenient options for customers.
Most retailers offer Click & Collect free of charge, and for good reason. While customers often collect orders for convenience and speed, it doesn’t always make financial sense to offer Click & Collect for free. The labor required to pick and stage an order and the transfer of items from the DC or another store needs to be considered when order volumes are low on average, and goods sold have low margins. Sending a pair of socks from one store to another store to be picked up will incur costs that might not be recuperated by the sale of the socks. A good way to mitigate this cost is to deploy a minimum order size to qualify for free Click & Collect. Make sure you communicate any restrictions or minimum order sizes clearly, often, and effectively so your customers know exactly what to expect.
Having margin or portability data against your SKUs in your OMS is an effective way to make these decisions in real time upfront. Fluent Commerce…
Communicate with your customers clearly and regularly. Don’t send unnecessary emails, but do send regular updates when the status of their order changes. For example, Order confirmation, Order in process, Ready for collection, etc. Use these notifications to set clear expectations about when the customer’s order will be ready, how, when, and where to collect it, and what information they will need to bring with them to collect their order.
This way, customers won’t feel the need to contact Customer Service to seek answers.
Try to use multiple communication channels for this such as text confirmations, emails, phone calls, etc. Fluent Commerce provides native integration into email and SMS providers…
To ensure a positive pickup experience, make it clear what customers will need to show to collect their order. Depending on local legislation and your company policies, this may include some basic details like Order number, Reservation number, Confirmation email or even some Photo identification or the card used for payment.
In addition, make sure you clearly communicate when, where, and how they can collect, both in your emails and texts to the customer and via in-store signage. Don’t forget to include options for customers who can’t collect orders themselves and clearly explain how they can enable others to pick them up for them.
How long will you give customers to pick up their order? What will the grace period be once this time has passed without collection? When are orders put back out on the sales floor or sent back to the warehouse? A common example is offering a two-week window to collect the order and another week’s grace period. During this time, you’ll need to remind customers regularly to collect their order and let them know when the sale will be canceled and refunded.
Although the percentage of uncollected orders is low (typically less than 1%), it needs to be considered, as otherwise, there will be stock sitting in storage when it could be used to make another sale. To decrease the amount of orders that will have to be refunded due to non-collection, you can create a process of changing the fulfillment method to home delivery after the grace period has expired. In this case, only orders with no address will have to be refunded. There is an additional consideration for orders shipped to a store for Click & Collect. You’ll need to determine whether the order should be returned to the warehouse or absorbed into the store stock. This may be based on the cost of transferring stock, as well as brand appearance in-store to see whether the item would suit the current store fit-out and stock.
When you roll out Click & Collect, planning for and monitoring impact on both Capital Expenditures (Capex) and Operating Expenses (Opex) is important. This will allow you to calculate the true value of Click & Collect to your business. Here are the key areas to consider:
There are a few factors to consider when planning which stores should be rolled out first. This will help define which areas and stores should be the focus of the rollout. Some key factors will determine which stores should participate and offer Click & Collect processes. Not all stores are equally suitable.
Additional staff hours will be needed to support new fulfillment methods. Most store staff levels are based on store sales. However, with the introduction of online sales into the store mix, you may need more staff to support the increased flow of orders and footfall into stores. We have seen large retailers addressing this by increasing the amount of staff working each shift. Retailers with smaller stores, where it is not suitable to increase staff, have solved this by adding time to the beginning or end of shifts to accommodate staff fulfilling online orders. You must review your requirements before launch and continue to monitor them. Think about:
The main goal of an omnichannel retail incentive scheme is to drive sales through all channels, ensuring a best in class experience is provided to all customers, regardless of their touchpoints. To that end, it’s important to ensure you have the buy-in of your store teams from the start. Store staff incentive schemes are often based on personal sales and hours worked. However, this approach doesn’t support omnichannel growth. Staff won’t be motivated to process online orders if they don’t receive any credit, which can result in poor customer experiences. The more effective way is to credit online sales to stores within a local geographic area. If you layer eCommerce revenue on top of store revenue, it automatically creates a stretch target or a ghost target for stores to achieve. Further, if these new targets are built into store staff Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), it will encourage your stores to work together with the eCommerce team to drive omnichannel shopping. Returns and exchanges are to be carefully considered. Returns in-store can present valuable opportunities to turn these lost sales into an exchange, giving staff additional sales opportunities. Conversely, we recommend not counting returns against incentive targets set for in-store staff. Returns for items bought online are higher than for in-store purchases; hence, having these count against in-store targets will negatively impact attitudes towards the businesses’ omnichannel strategy amongst staff. Many retailers have failed to create a strong relationship between their stores and eCommerce teams which can result in losing sales to competitors. A modern omnichannel incentive scheme should consider:
It’s important to prepare for the impact Click & Collect will have on your Customer Service teams. Both your store and customer service staff will need the ability to manage omnichannel orders quickly and easily. This may include canceling orders, refunds, or calling customers to remind them to collect an order. You’ll want to consider the following:
Appropriate training needs to take place across the business, specifically within stores and Customer Care centers. If staff aren’t sure how to use new technology and processes efficiently and quickly, it can impact the return on your Click & Collect investment. Here are some tips on how to approach training: Early Communication to Stores—Involve stores when defining processes to ensure they will work in the real-world setting and secure buy-in.
Does rolling out Click & Collect mean you need to carry more stock? Not necessarily. However, businesses must take a flexible approach to stock and range planning to ensure the rollout is successful and the desired sales uplift is achieved. Your approach to store stock allocations should be reviewed prior to go-live, and participating stores should be monitored closely during the initial launch. This data will aid forecasts and planning. Stock modeling should be completed to ensure that the optimum stock levels are achieved in participating stores. Breakpoints for each geographic area will need to be set as a percentage of current online sales for that territory. You will need to decide which percentages make sense to model during this process, but 10%, 30%, and 50% are good starting points to work from. In addition, many retailers will create “Hub Stores”, whereby stock levels and range are increased in select stores to support Click & Collect fulfillment in specific areas. This lets you increase the number of items that are available via Click & Collect but minimize your inventory carrying costs.
While Click & Collect can provide a convenient fulfillment option for customers, it’s essential that the experience is consistent, regardless of the time of year. This is especially true during peak seasons such as Christmas, etc. If stores receive too many Click & Collect orders without enough trained staff or storage space to handle them, it can result in a bad customer experience. In fact, some retailers have had to turn off Click & Collect during peak periods due to these business challenges. This is wasting a huge opportunity to secure and increase customer loyalty during those busy periods and capitalize on the potential for upselling in-store (people who pick up a Christmas gift tend to need more than one gift and might be able to tick some more off their list whilst they are in your store). High volume periods are precisely those times when customers most want an easy and convenient way to shop. So it’s important to develop a • Order collection rates plan to ensure you meet this demand. Ensuring space is available for additional orders and extra staff are rostered to fulfill online orders. Make sure collection points are clearly labelled and conveniently located and that staff are trained to manage the influx of traffic in-store.
As with any new process, you’ll need to create a set of metrics to help you gauge the success of your Click & Collect program. Monitoring these metrics will help you track progress, stay focused and make informed and timely decisions if problems arise. Some examples include:
Costs:
Benefits can be measured via:
Click & Collect Process Assessment:
Tracking these metrics will let you:
Many shoppers claim they will shop elsewhere if an online store doesn’t offer convenient delivery options. This makes Click & Collect an essential part of your online offering. One that provides a crucial link between the digital and physical experiences customers have with your brand. But more than that, Click & Collect creates a unique advantage over online-only businesses or retailers with limited store networks. Are you ready to make Click & Collect work for you?
Michael Wholohan
APAC @ Fluent Commerce
Disclaimer: All information and resources found on community.fluentcommerce.com are based on the opinions of the author (unless otherwise noted). All information is intended to inspire and motivate well thought through technical decisions inline with Fluent Commerce recommended practices and principles.
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