Everyone has experienced the frustration of buying online, but being out when the courier calls.
You either have to try and reschedule the delivery or go and collect it from a central depot – just more hassle when buying online is supposed to be straightforward.
But there is a solution for online retailers and frustrated customers – it’s called ‘click and collect’.
Click and collect is helping retailers of all sizes to increase their delivery options to suit shoppers’ ever expanding needs.
As shoppers continue to place importance on convenience, click and collect allows customers to get what they want, where they want it.
A recent report predicted that click and collect purchases are set to grow by more than two thirds, and will be worth over £4 billion by 2018.
Independent retailers can now be as flexible as larger retailers in offering increased convenience to customers, allowing them to browse and order goods online or via a mobile device and collect from their store.
Not only does click and collect stop the need for customers to wait in for deliveries, it also helps customers feel more assured in their purchase and increase brand trust, as they can visit a physical location with real people.
This phenomenon looks set to become a standard option when shopping online and a feature all retailers must offer in order to succeed.
To offer such a facility a retailer needs access to live stock levels and sales figures across their business.
How can online and independent retailers offer click and collect?
A simple way to do this is via a cloud-based EPOS system.
This is because with cloud based systems there is just one product and customer database, hosted online, which all locations and sales channels share.
This means a retailer can view all sales as they happen, and with it real time stock levels.
So you don’t get the situation where customers reserve a product online, only to get to the store to be told there is no stock of that item, which would be frustrating.
The future of retail is about flexibility and offering customers choice, convenience and excellent service.
Click and collect achieves all three.
