How Convenient is Buy Online, Pickup In Store?

staples-online-pickup-150Buy online, pickup in store is supposed to be a major differentiator for omnichannel retailers. But is buy online, pickup in store really that convenient?

According to a study by StellaService, buying online is a piece of cake. But it may not be easier than just walking into a store to find and buy an item.

In order for StellaService to provide an accurate comparison, all purchases were made at Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Office Depot, Sears, Staples, Target, Toys ‘R Us and Walmart stores in the South region during the week of Oct. 27.

StellaService’s shoppers ordered items online for each of the 11 retailers and then tracked the corresponding notification from the retailer. Shoppers then visited two separate locations for each of the 11 retailers included in the study and conducted a side-by-side test of one standard in-store purchase and one BOPIS purchase. During each side-by-side test, shoppers entered the stores at precisely the same time. The standard in-store purchase was included in the study to provide additional points of comparison.

StellaService found that for BOPIS shoppers, 58% of their time in-store was spent at the checkout desk (3.1 minutes on average). For context, the checkout process for in-store shoppers was more expedient – representing only 15% of their in-store time (1.1 minutes).

Check out Happy Customer for more details about the study.

I’m not surprised with the results. I shared some of my early holiday season horror stories with you, including my Cyber Monday BOPIS experience with Best Buy. Long story short, Best Buy did have some outages over Cyber Weekend, which may or may not have resulted in a lack of notification that my purchase was ready for pickup.

But the store I chose to do the in-store pickup at was also horribly understaffed. It was easier for me to go to the shelf, pick the item myself, then proceed to the checkout.

Technology-wise, BOPIS is great. But you still need the human element at the bricks and mortar level to complete the customer experience.

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