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Use case: Click & Collect

Published: 24-10-2024

15 min read

#Java

MANAGE YOUR BUY ONLINE PICKUP IN STORE (BOPIS) EXPERIENCE EFFECTIVELY WITH FLUENT COMMERCE

What are some of the common variations of Click & Collect;
  • Click and Collect
  • Buy online pickup in store (BOPIS)
  • Reserve online, pickup in store
  • Curb-side pickup
  • Direct to boot
  • Locker collection

What do I need to consider for my Click & Collect Business case; 

Increase sales
  • Drive online customers in-store, boosting store visits and up-selling and cross-selling opportunities
  • Increased online conversion rates by offering Click & Collect availability
Drive better Customer Experiences
  • Offer your online customers fast, convenient pickup… from anywhere 
  • Let customers save more money and time
  • Enhanced Customer Engagement and Loyalty
Cost Savings
  • Save on reduced shipping costs
  • Optimise return handling costs and processing

  • Reduced overstock costs through better Inventory optimisation

What do i need to consider before kicking off my Click & Collect project?

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.

The Click & Collect Process: Key Considerations

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. 

1. Where will orders be fulfilled from?

There are three main ways a Click & Collect order can be fulfilled;

  • Using Store Inventory: Store staff pick the order from existing store inventory and set it aside for collection. This is the best-case scenario as transfer won’t be required and it provides the quickest pickup time for the customer. In-store inventory accuracy is crucial to make this option work smoothly. Working with technology that supports real-time inventory awareness will enable retailers to get it right each time and make more accurate customer promises. 
  • Ship to Store from a Distribution Center (DC): If an item isn’t available in the chosen store, the most common and most efficient next step is to fulfill the order from a warehouse or distribution center. From there, the order is shipped to the store, where it will be collected. This is a great option if store inventory isn’t as accurate yet as needed and ensures every sale can be fulfilled. It is important to consider the cost and time it takes to ship these items and communicate this clearly internally as well as with customers.
  • Transfer Inventory from One Store to Another: In this scenario, store staff pick and pack the order and send it to the store where it will be collected. This can result in shorter delivery times and may lower costs depending on the location of both the stores and the DC. A key aspect here will be that store staff require training to perform this, and stores may need to hold additional packaging and labeling materials. However, being flexible in where you fulfill orders and ensuring no sales are lost will be well worth these efforts. 
2. Setting expectations for how quickly items can be collected.

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. 

3. Are upsell and cross-sell programs and staff training in place to maximize additional foot traffic? 

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. 

4. What happens when an order isn’t available in the chosen store? 

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… 

5. When is payment collected? 

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; 

  • Order Capture: In this scenario payment is captured up front when the order is placed, typically via your e-Commerce platform. The advantage is that you receive funds quickly. The challenge is that if an order cannot be fulfilled, a refund or credit is required. 
  • Order Dispatched: Some retailers may want to delay payment processing until the order has been successfully picked and packed. This ensures payment is accurate as what is being dispatched and no adjustments are required.
  • At Order Collection (Reserve In-Store): Some retailers choose not to process payment until an order is collected. This strategy is sometimes used by apparel retailers. It eliminates the need to process an exchange if the customer tries an item on but needs a different size. 
6. Will cross-brand Click & Collect be offered? 

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.

7. Is Click & Collect free for the customer? 

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…

8. Which notifications will you send the customer, when, and what information will they include? 

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… 

9. What do customers need to bring when they collect their order? 

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. 

10. What happens when orders aren’t collected? 

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. 

11. What Financial Considerations 

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: 

  • Store Revenue Targets - For the stores involved in Click & Collect, store staff will overachieve current year targets. You will need to reforecast and re-plan so you can provide new goals for stores. 
  • Wage Costs - Increased wage costs will be incurred for participating stores due to increased workload in stores. If the impact on orders is modeled correctly at a regional/ store level, costs in this area will align with the predicted growth.
  • Technology Costs - Stores will require both hardware and software to manage Click & Collect orders. Plan for acquisition and maintenance of these items
  • Staff and training - The distribution of additional materials, such as labels, training materials, marketing materials, etc., to participating stores.
  • Warehouse Costs - An increase in customers collecting from stores will reduce shipping costs for the delivery and, in some cases, for warehouse operations. Having an accurate view of store inventory is crucial to forecast the impact of this. 
12. Store Rollout and Participation 

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. 

  • Online Sales Data - Review this information against key geographical locations. By dividing the data by postcode and grouping it into states, you can define each state's key focus areas. 
  • Inventory Accuracy - To ensure a smooth customer experience, it is crucial to select stores with a high level of inventory accuracy.
  • Storage Space – Does the store have space to hold customer orders that are ready for collection?
  • Collection Area Space - Is there space to create a dedicated collection area so customers can “skip the queue” when they have already purchased online?
  • Staff Availability - Will staff in the store be able to fulfill Click & Collect orders? What training is needed, and how will staff rostering be impacted? Both well-performing and underperforming stores can benefit from the increased footfall caused by customers coming in to collect orders. 
13. Staffing Requirements 

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: 

  • Key Collection Times - The most popular times to collect Click & Collect orders are during late-night trading, weekends and promotional events such as Click Frenzy, Black Friday, etc. This will be dependent on location and could vary between stores.
  • Online Order Peaks - The periods when online orders tend to spike should be reviewed before launch and regularly once live. This will help you plan your staffing to ensure good coverage during peak periods.
  • Overnight Orders - Orders that get placed overnight, outside store opening hours, will be queued for processing when the store opens.
  • Store Capacity - How many Click & Collect orders can each store process and hold? How long can they hold orders for?
  • Availability of Trained Staff - Staff will need to be trained on the hardware and software needed to process Click & Collect orders. Will enough trained staff be available during peak collection times?
14. Staff Incentives 

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:

  • Store-based Incentives – Base incentives on total store sales rather than individual staff member sales. This encourages teams to collaborate and achieve a common goal. Individual staff incentives can be determined by calculating the % of total store hours worked and will only pay if the entire store target is achieved.
  • Fulfillment Attribution - A percentage of online sales credit should be given to the local geographic area that fulfilled the order. The rules around this need to be determined by the business.
  • Store Sales + Online Sales Incentives – Stores should be measured on total sales (store sales plus locally fulfilled eCommerce sales). The move away from just using in-store sales as a KPI  will encourage store staff to support and promote the online channel, rather than seeing it as a competitor.
  • Returns - eCommerce orders returned in stores should not count against incentives. Otherwise, it will add to the online/offline friction often felt by store staff. 
  • Click & Collect Success Rate KPIs – Introduce a KPI that measures the success rate of Click & Collect order fulfillment. This will increase the stores’ buy-in and help identify underperformers. 
15. Preparing Customer Service 

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: 

  • Peak Trading Periods - Make sure there is more coverage during peak periods so that stores get the support they need to service customers well. 
  • Support Calls from Stores - You may see an increase in inbound support calls from stores that have questions about correct procedures or need help troubleshooting issues. 
  • More Outbound Calls and Emails - Click & Collect may result in more outbound calls to remind customers about “uncollected” parcels or confirm or change “no stock” orders.
  • Updated Tools and Processes - More efficient tools and processes may be needed to support fast turnaround of inbound and outbound support calls. 
16. Training 

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. 

  • Application Training – Provide hands on training to show store staff how the new functionality works. This will help build confidence and ensure all staff are comfortable talking about and promoting the new initiative to customers. 
  • Process Training - Conduct process training that helps staff understand how new processes merge with old and understand why Click & Collect is so important to the business. This is also the perfect opportunity to return to basics and re-educate staff on current processes. 
  • Training Manuals - Provide training manuals to all stores and Customer Care detailing step-by-step the processes involved, so they can use them for reference during the rollout and to help train new staff. 
  • Demo Videos - Create videos that show the full end-to-end journey for the customer as an easy way for store staff to understand every touch point of the journey. 
  • Training Sign Off Sheet - Have store managers track which staff have been trained on a sign-off sheet. This ensures all store staff have completed all training and helps to ensure temporary staff are fully trained too. 
17. Assortment Planning & Stock Levels 

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. 

18. High-Intensity Trading Periods 

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. 

19. Measure, improve, repeat 

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:

  • Average cost per Click & Collect customer
  • Overall cost of Click & Collect customers 

Benefits can be measured via: 

  • Net Promoter Score (NPSs) 
  • Average incremental spend by Click & Collect customers
  • Customer loyalty/retention rates
  • eCommerce conversion rates
  • Attachment rates 

Click & Collect Process Assessment: 

  • Number of Click & Collect related help desk tickets
  • Store staff survey responses
  • Length of time customers queue for collection
  • Time it takes store staff to fulfill an order 

Tracking these metrics will let you:

  • Identify the lifetime value of your Click & Collect customers
  • Assess whether your Click & Collect strategy is meeting customer expectations
  • Measure revenue upside against the cost
  • Flag friction in the customer journey
  • Increase operational efficiency by reducing the time and number of employees needed to serve Click & Collect customers
  • Improve the customer experience to build loyalty and trust. 
Convenient Delivery is Essential 

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

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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