What Are the Benefits of Buy Online, Pick Up in Store?
Did you know that there is a way for retailers to leverage their stores to fulfill their customer’s needs? See, customers can order items online but pick them up in-store. Indeed, Buy Online, pick up in-store (BOPS), has gained much popularity. This strategy seems to wow huge retailers who boast of an extensive network of physical locations to send items. Many retailers have adopted this strategy since it has many peeks linked to it and the fact that most people are now working from home while most are receiving retail news at home. The approach must have proven to increase profits as well as efficiency in customer service. Here are the most significant perks related to the use of BOPS. But before the perks, see this article to learn how you can leverage this opportunity.
- Fewer Returns
Retailers face a lot of challenges when thousands of items have to be returned. The process is quite expensive, and this means losses to the company. It also wastes valuable time when returning the products. But if the product is picked from a store, the customer can check it properly before leaving the premise and ascertain that it is the same item they ordered. The items can even be swapped quickly, which reduces return rates. The swapping also translates to huge savings since the product does not have to be returned from the client directly to the distribution centre.
Chances of an impulse buy increases.
A long time ago, you would have to drive to the physical stores to view and buy various products. In the process of viewing the items on catalogs, they would come across other beautiful products that they bought out of impulse. However, the rate at which typical shoppers buy items impulse has reduced due to the inception of online stores. In most cases, you only order what you need. It is hard to make impulse buys since you are not at the store.
Thus, retailers have to process higher volumes of orders which bear typically small profits for each item. This leads to high product processing costs since various people make small orders, and they have to be delivered in different locations. But BOPS get shoppers into the store where they can still view other products. This makes it easy to convince customers to purchase additional products. They achieve that by upselling or placing strategic adverts to lure store visitors.
- Decreased Shipping Time
Customers are growing more impatient than before. Most retailers have adopted strategies that offer speedy delivery. However, in some cases, the same or next day deliveries happen to be costly on the retailer’s side. But with the BOPS, the big and small retailers can serve their customers better and offer quick deliveries without getting trapped into providing free shipping. So, anyone who wants to collect their items from a nearby store finds it easy and convenient. Also, those who can wait for direct delivery can wait for the delivery to be made. This way, any retailer can keep all its customers happy and even regain loyalty, which seems to have reduced drastically over time.
Advanced system integration
An immediate inventory management system must be put in place for BOPS to work well. In addition to that, a good warehouse management system must be established. Otherwise, it would be very hard for the sellers to keep the inventory visible across various channels. Truly, these advanced systems will definitely need a bit of investment. However, its returns are way much higher than the initial capital injected. It will also bring in more perks such as being able to anticipate stock-outs, put losses sat bay, and stock up inventory logically.
- Increased Consumer Choice
Over time, customers have become more adapted to more excellent choices in how they shop. See, customers want to receive the orders as they wish. It does not matter how they did the shopping. They could have gone to the physical shop after reading reviews; they could have ordered online or bought online but picked up from a nearby store. They want to enjoy the freedom of receiving orders as they wish. So, the BOPS has made a significant improvement in the retail industry. Customers are now happy, and the trend seems to get better.
Conclusion
You have seen how Buy Online, pick in-store, has impacted how retailers and shoppers relate. Retailers are not receiving many returns since they can be swiped right from the store set for picking. Also, same-day delivery or next-day delivery, it can now smile since it has been made easier by BOPS. Also, it has increased consumer choice with a significant margin. You can even set up your store for customers to pick items shipped to it by big retailers.