A greater percentage of stores had merchandise ready for consumers who had ordered online and chosen the in-store pickup option than a year ago, according to a study released yesterday by the E-tailing Group Inc.
“We found that although the buy online/in-store pickup process is improving, few merchants are truly leveraging the experience to either build relationships or garner incremental sales,” E-tailing Group president Lauren Freedman said of the results in the “Buy Online/In-Store Pick-Up Process” study.
The Chicago-based consulting group twice shopped each of 15 merchants who offered an in-store pickup option, testing the overall customer experience.
There were several improvements compared with a similar study by the group last year, including:
· 90 percent of merchants provided free shipping to the store for pickup versus 88 percent last year.
· 67 percent offered same-day pickup versus 63 percent last year.
· Merchandise was ready and waiting 87 percent of the time versus 75 percent last year.
Also, 73 percent of store associates located the ordered products quickly.
When a product was ready for pickup, customers were notified by an e-mail 73 percent of the time and a telephone call 27 percent of the time. Only 13 percent of e-mails contained the designated store's hours; 33 percent stated the allotted time to pick up an order; 60 percent listed the store's phone number; 68 percent included pickup instructions and 73 percent provided store location/contact information.
Chantal Todé covers catalog and retail news and BTB marketing for DM News and DM News.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
