Why Click and Collect is at the Heart of Great Retail Experience

Why Click and Collect isat the Heart of Great

Retail Experience

Vanessa Walmsely - Sven-Olof Husmark - Terry Green

Why Click and Collect is at the Heart ofGreat Retail Experience

Clicking is simple. Collecting should betoo.By Vanessa Walmsley

Click & Collect (C&C) is not a new concept to retailers or to customers.Earlier this year, it was estimated that retailers are ful lling up to 70% oftheir online orders in-store. [1] It ’s an attractive – and demanded – part ofcustomer service and many retailers are starting to realise measurablebene ts. For example, C&C helps to reduce purchase friction whilst drivingup footfall and point-of-purchase revenues.

Why Click and Collect is at the Heart of Great Retail Experience

http://lp.qmatic.com/blog/clicking-is-simple-collecting-should-be-too#_ftn1

http://lp.qmatic.com/blog/clicking-is-simple-collecting-should-be-too


Sustaining a robust C&C o ering requires a lot of work. Many retailers havegured out the online parts of C&C. They have an e-commerce platform that

accommodates purchasing with very few clicks. Yet, few are getting the fullvalue from their C&C e orts – because the crucial human component ismissing from the in-store experience. So when the customer comes into theenvironment to pick up his or her purchase, the journey can often fall apart.

Like many consumers, I love to shop, but I don’talways have time. I love C&C because it works for my lifestyle. I can search online (which oftenhappens during my commute or at night after my daughter goes to bed),purchase from my laptop, and set my collection points at stores that areclose to where I will be. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, last year, a lot went wrong. As I start to think about Christmas and allthe presents I’m excited to nd for my daughter, my friends, and my family, Ican’t help but think of last year, when I ended up having to ask my neighbourto take delivery for items I’d bought online because the C&C process went sowrong.

Here were a few of the highlights – do any of these sound familiar? I bet theydo.

I can’t easily identify where I should go to collect my goods. Afterwandering through a seriously crowded store for far too long, I nd thecollection desk – on the top oor! That means that when I nally do pickup my parcels, I have a long way to go to get out of the store – now withbags in tow! Somebody didn’t think all the way through this setup.




No one is at the counter when I eventually nd the collection point. Andto make it more frustrating, there are no instructions posted aboutcalling for assistance. I stand there wondering if I should go ndsomeone? Wait? Wave at random people hoping they can help me?

I have to queue up because it ’s the Christmas season and the entireworld seems to have had the same idea to collect purchases after workor on the weekend. And to make it worse, the person ahead of me ishaving an issue. Her parcel is not ready so the line is not moving. Atleast this time I’m not in the same queue as the people who are trying topay for items they have just selected in store! Still, at this point, I’mwishing I had booked a day off work to take home delivery.

I got frustrated! My favourite brands were failing to delight me – not becauseof the products, but because of the service! I’ve paid for these items already.Shouldn’t collecting them be the easy part?

I recognise that it ’s not easy being a retailer today. I realise how demanding Isound. Yet, I still want (and expect) great C&C service – especially becausesome brands manage to get it so right.




I’m excited to share some simple insights.I joined the UK o ces of Qmatic in 2016. It ’s a hugely exciting company! Weuse tools like customer journey mapping to create frictionless customerexperiences. This means I get to have interesting conversations with myfavourite brands – and guess what? That includes showing them ways toensure the “collect” part of C&C is a seamless, stress-free, customer-enhancing experience. First and foremost, we view every journey from startto nish, from online to in-store. We break up a journey into six parts andestablish measurable objectives at each one.

Here’s what my ideal Christmas shopping journey looks like for this year:




1. Pre-arrival – My favourite brand is sharing regular communicationsand status updates directly with me via SMS and push noti cations. Iknow what is happening with my order!

2. Arrival – As I arrive in-store, I check in – and I have options! I can use akiosk, touchscreen, app, or even iBeacon technology. The sta know Ihave arrived and they con rm they’re ready for me with a text to myphone.

3. Waiting – I get real-time messages telling me where to go, where I am inthe queue, and giving me some activities I can enjoy whilst I wait, I knowalready I will browse and nd more items I want to buy! I get anothermessage to alert me when my goods are ready for pick up.

4. Serving – When I get to the counter, a smiling team member is readyfor me. The entire interaction is friendly – we share our excitementabout the holidays!

5. Post-serving – As I leave the store, I get a thank you message on myphone and a promotional offer for the next time I purchase online or in-store. I’m happy to click the link and answer a short questionnaireabout my experience and to compliment the lovely sta for greatservice.

6. Analysis – I know that every step of the process is gathering businessintelligence that my favourite brand can use to keep improving.

The amazing thing is that these steps all take place within acohesive enterprise customer journey management ecosystem! That’s howQmatic helps brands succeed – each of these steps works together fromend-to-end – from online purchase to in-store pickup.


http://www.qmatic.com/meet-qmatic/news/2016/april/my-fun-wait-press/

http://www.qmatic.com/customer-journey-management/orchestra/



Why Click and Collect is at the Heart ofGreat Retail ExperienceBy: Sven-Olof Husmark

At the heart of a successful C&C campaign is one thing – a seamless journey.Online (click) and in-store (collect) should not be considered separatechannels. They need to work as a single, complementary system. And if youcan make it easy for your customers to collect and you delight them in thestore, they will click more often!

For 89% of customers, one bad experience is all it takes for them to decideto abandon a brand. There is no question – we are living in the Age of theConsumer. As Forrester has observed, “the only sustainable competitiveadvantage is knowledge of and engagement of customers.” Fortunately, thetools exist for both of these imperatives.




Ten years ago, the discussion about customer touch points would havecentered on how to translate brick-and-mortar retail experiences into theonline space. Today, retail brands that were born online are opening upshop in the physical world – ushering in an era in which consumers(justi ably) expect the best of both channels. They want to be delighted withgreat products, personalized attention, ease, and total consistency acrosswhatever brand channel they choose.

‘Seamless’ is not a Buzzword

In the customer-driven, multi-channel retail economy, ‘seamless ‘ is thesimplest way to pinpoint the source of an excellent customer experience. Itmeans that whether a customer starts his journey in the store, online, or ona mobile app, he can accomplish whatever he needs to do, moving smoothlyfrom one channel to another without any gaps in the process or brandpersonality.

One of the biggest indicators of how important it is for brands to give theirshoppers the choice between online and onsite channels is the rise of ‘Click& Collect.’ With it, some of the most prominent brands in the world havesolidi ed the connection between online and real-world channels, andrealized an average uplift in sales often exceeding 25%.From our vantagepoint as a leading supplier of Click & Collect solutions, the Qmatic team seesthree reasons why it is a key component to a creating a high performingbrand experience.


http://www.qmatic.com/solutions/industry-solutions/retail/



It simpli es the buying process.The Internet makes shopping easy.With a few clicks, the customer makes a selection and a payment. Instore makes shopping tactile – they can see and feel products and enjoythe experience of handling a package immediately at the point ofpurchase. Click & Collect is the best of both worlds. The customer buysonline and gathers their purchase on site. They get a personalized SMSalert when their order is ready, meaning they can skip potentially longcheckout lines. That time translates to less frustration for customersand employees, and often increases the probability of additional sales.

It is e cient. Automating some of the retail process improves thee ciency of your operations and your customer’s in-store experience.For example, the customer could self-check in with an automated kiosk.The data is relayed to sta so they can work at peak e ciency. And thecustomer remains informed about expected wait time and evenrelevant in-store promotions, so they can make full use of their in-storeexperience.

It makes your customer feel special. With Click & Collect, the cookie-based targeting that works so well online works well in store as well. Bycombining online purchasing history and store bene ts like loyaltyprograms, you have the data necessary to personalize product offerings,exclusive deals, or even VIP access to new and relevant productreleases.

Click & Collect is how retailers build seamless connections between onlineand onsite environments. It is how consistent, personalized shoppingexperiences are created. And it is a powerful way to improve operationale ciencies, in-store sales, and employee utilization. In this Age of theConsumer, it may represent the best tool in your brand arsenal to makesure every brand experience is a good one. Let Qmatic show you how it canwork in your retail environment.




“Click & Disconnect” – how to lose retailcustomers at the point of fulfillmentBy: Terry Green

We all know that “Click and Collect” represents a huge opportunity forretailers to enhance their customer’s view of their brand, to lower costs fromunsuccessful deliveries and to increase basket size. But it seems to me, thatin the headlong rush to “digitise” their bricks and mortar business modelsmany of the brands that serve us are running the risk of turning thepowerful “Click & Collect” opportunity into “Click & Disconnect” for theircustomers.

Here are two recent examples that threaten to wreck the brands reputationwith their customers:




A leading supermarket chain, who in desperate haste are insertinginappropriately located “Click & Collect” points into their stores with nothought as to how these impact on the customer journey. In one Londoncity centre convenience store that I recently visited, the “Click & Collect”counter is alongside the normal payment area, which becomes freneticduring lunch times – the very time when “Click & Collect” customers are likelyto come in alongside all of those buying lunch. If the “Click & Collect”customer wants to buy their lunch too, they would have to queue twice!What a nonsense! If the “Click & Collect” counter ever gets busy the queuewill impact on the payment area which will increase walkaways and at lunchtime that means dumped baskets. Visiting the same brands superstore inCoventry demonstrated the other end of the range where I found the “Click& Collect” facility co-located with a Costa Co ee, away from the main store.In contrast to the previous example the “C&C” store looks like a huge,desolate, empty space. You can practically see the tumbleweed blowingacross it. The image gains considerably from the bored member of staffstanding with folded arms behind the counter.

Secondly, a mobile phone retailer who, fed up with the on cost ofproblematic customer delivery, decides that it would be a great idea to havecustomers collect their web purchases in store and buy accessories at thesame time. They have conveniently forgotten that existing customers whouse the stores are already complaining about the lousy in store journey andpoor queue management and by the way, the range of accessories availableto buy in store is derisory!




Brands continue to spend a fortune on having a sexy and e ective digitalpresence but they need to think hard about the way this integrates with theface to face experience that the customers are often forced to endure instore. Please guys, on behalf of shoppers everywhere it doesn’t have to bethis way. The tools exist to manage the process of service allocation in storeand connect this up with the on line experience seamlessly and in a way thatwill delight your customers. All that’s required is a little thought andpreparation, the ability to “put yourself in your customer’s shoes” and amodest investment in the solutions which will pay for themselves manytimes over through increased customer loyalty, basket size and a wealth ofuseful data around the physical shopping experience.

Over 70% of all purchase decisions are still made in face to face space andyes, that includes the additional purchases that “Click & Collect” customersmake when they come into store to pick up their online purchases. Butthese purchases will only get made if the journey is good, stress free andpresents opportunities to buy in a relevant and convenient way to thevisiting customer.


https://app.designrr.io/#

https://app.designrr.io/#

http://lp.qmatic.com/whitepaper-with-best-practice-for-click-and-collect-in-retail?__hstc=74869325.44dbee837ab84ec38904c343e3a60f08.1453905095657.1478162891928.1478256424366.462&__hssc=74869325.1.1478349659222&__hsfp=1521785950&hsCtaTracking=2a639871-8b21-45eb-b1b6-d6b23ef77eec%7Cd1238a1a-8bb8-4131-83ad-a65580b6e43b

http://lp.qmatic.com/whitepaper-with-best-practice-for-click-and-collect-in-retail?__hstc=74869325.44dbee837ab84ec38904c343e3a60f08.1453905095657.1478162891928.1478256424366.462&__hssc=74869325.1.1478349659222&__hsfp=1521785950&hsCtaTracking=2a639871-8b21-45eb-b1b6-d6b23ef77eec%7Cd1238a1a-8bb8-4131-83ad-a65580b6e43b
