Retailers are letting themselves down when it comes to the instore experience around click and collect and missing opportunities to better engage with their customers, according to new research from Qmatic.
The study showed that use of click and collect was widespread with only 11% of retailers either not offering click and collect already or not planning to do so in the future.
But the findings also found that half of customers are having to wait over four minutes while orders are retrieved.
Vanessa Walmsley, managing director at Qmatic UK, said this was unacceptable. “In the age of Amazon, speed, and instant gratification, the traditional brick-and-mortar retailers must innovate and optimise their in-store environment for today’s savvy consumers in order to create an integrated omnichannel experience that eliminates friction. Retailers should, therefore, be looking at how they can both reduce this waiting time for customers and increase browsing time and therefore sell more,” she said/
Walmsley said retailers should do more around the customer experience to embrace the opportunity to interact with customers, engage in conversations, offer personalised products in-store and to upsell more.
The research showed that how customers collect their orders is also changing with collection from locker or safes in-store or via a mobile app check-in all set for growth. 3% currently use a locker or safe in-store, but 19% plan to use this in the future. 6% currently use mobile app check-in but 16% plan to use this in the future.
A dedicated click and collect desk remains the most popular option for collecting orders for 53% of retailers. This is followed by any checkout till for 38% of retailers and via a customer services/returns desk for 31%.
Retailers could also do more around notifications with a current heavy bias towards email. 86% of retailers who offer click and collect inform their customers when their package has arrived via email. This is followed by 35% via SMS. Only 17% use a mobile app to notify customers that a parcel has arrived for them and 14% use an internet messaging service such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
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