Retail

What Does Future of Click-and-Collect Look Like For Retailers?

Click-and-collect, or buy-online, pickup-in-store (BOPIS), is a way for retailers to respond to increasing customer demand for convenience and “no-touch” environments.

According to research firm eMarketer, a majority of U.S. consumers had tried click-and-collect before the pandemic began, with sales eclipsing $58.5 billion in 2020 from $36.4 billion in 2019. However, social-distancing and a focus on health and safety at storefronts is prompting even greater demand. 

“Retailers were lacking slots and capacity to handle the surge in demand for click-and-collect,” Thierry Elmalem, senior managing director, management consulting, EMEA, said. “In some markets, like the UK that are predominantly home delivery, grocery click-and-collect existed, but not at scale and not with industrial processes.”

Global data from the Digital Life Index, Publicis Sapient’s proprietary consumer survey, finds BOPIS remains one of the most preferred online fulfillment methods for shoppers. As consumer habits continue to move toward click-and-collect, retailers are reinventing their business and implementing technologies to manage demand, provide better customer experiences and improve profitability.

How (and where) to automate

One of the biggest challenges managing click-and-collect demand is ability to process, prepare and manage an influx of online orders. Manual processes are often inherently slow, inaccurate and expensive, with employees hand-picking orders either on the sales floor or from backroom inventory.

Retailers are working to improve their picking model, moving away from fully manual order preparation and automating processes in places that best benefit their organization.

Automate in key areas with micro-fullfillment

Micro-fullfillment is now enabling retailers to use smaller spaces (like the backroom of a store) and prepare orders at scale with limited human intervention. Retailers can use micro-fullfillment manage order preparation for curated SKUs (between 10-15,000), allowing them to move product that may be in higher demand.

“It's no longer a picker going to the shelf – it’s a machine preparing orders and bringing it to an employee,” Elmalem said. “You save a lot of time and money by streamlining this process.”

Get strategic about standalone locations

Imagine an outpost where people can drive up, scan their information through an app and pick up their order right on site – no in-store interaction needed. That’s the idea behind standalone click-and-locations – a type of “full-time” dark store that’s gaining traction among retailers.

At Publicis Sapient we believe in a “city-based attack” approach to standalone click-and-collect – where retailers strategically position click-and-collect units based on competitive advantage, whether it’s attached to existing stores or completely standalone.

For example, French retailer Leclerc has dominated the click-and-collect market (with more than 48 percent market share) by adding standalone locations alongside its competitive prices, range and services. Strategically located on high-traffic roads or nearby key competitors, Leclerc managed to attract customers that would not typically come to their stores and grew sales without cannibalizing existing store revenue.

The future of click-and-collect

Each retailer needs to find the right solution depending on its market, cost of labor, the retailer’s footprint and space available. It’s important to test a few models and consider all options available before committing to long-term investments.

At Publicis Sapient, we have extensive experience working with grocers and retailers to understand what model is right for them and build the right processes meant to delight the customer, remove friction and increase profitability.