Thursday, June 19, 2014
One of the weapons in the arsenal of brick and mortar retailers in the battle to preserve and grow their market share in the face of completion from solely online retailers is referred to as Click and Collect service.
This enables customers to order a product online, and then pick it up at the store location that is most convenient. The advantage to the customer is one that has driven them to stores for centuries, which is the instant gratification of having a purchase in their hands as soon as possible. Even next day delivery, disregarding the expense, cannot match that speed, at least not until Google gets its fleet of delivery drones deployed.
Dick Smith is one retailer that is adopting the strategy. To this point, 53 of their locations have the appropriate technology in place and the corporation is committed to making click and collect available at another 320 locations in Australia and New Zealand.
As is to be expected, at the current moment the service is concentrated in the larger states of NSW, Queensland and Victoria, but there are also a few locations in WA, NT, Tasmania and NZ.
The click and collect strategy relies on technology supplied by the eCommerce shipping management platform Termando. The platform claims as one of its key benefits the ease of use for Dick Smith store staff, minimising training requirements. It also permits the retailer using the platform to route stock to the desired location and time shipments to peak periods of demand.
Temando is also capable of managing inventory levels at each location and to allocate shipments to the best location to fulfill a customer’s order.
The very technology that represents the greatest threat to the existence of traditional retailing is now being employed to help those retailers strike back against online retailers.
If you have a business that could use some help with your eCommerce strategy or a modern Point of Sale system, contact our team today for a free demonstration.