Yet another study has confirmed the skyrocketing popularity of click-and-collect shopping — whereby shoppers order online and collect their merchandise in the store. Adobe Analytics reports that click-and-collect jumped by 47 percent in November and December, from the comparable period in 2017.
That growth dwarfed the 16.5 percent growth in online sales, reports Reuters, citing the Adobe Analytics study. Best Buy, Home Depot, Target and Walmart all reported such increases.
Click-and-collect pickups accounted for nearly a third of U.S. online sales during the two-month holiday-shopping period, versus 22 percent for the year-earlier period, and slightly more than 17 percent in the 2016 season, according to Reuters, which cites consulting firm GlobalData for these figures.
Roughly 40 percent of Best Buy's online purchases are picked up in the store
Store pickup benefits consumers and retailers alike, as shoppers get their merchandise quicker, and retailers save on shipping costs, observers say. There is a further benefit as well, whenever shoppers picking up the merchandise go on to buy additional items once they are at the store, notes ICSC President and CEO Tom McGee.
Best Buy told Reuters that some 40 percent of its online sales involve in-store pickups. “Store pickup is certainly convenient," said Best Buy spokesman Jeff Shelman, "as 70 percent of Americans live within 15 minutes of a Best Buy store, and millions of people drive past one of our stores each day on their way to and from work."
By Edmund Mander
Director, Editor-In-Chief/SCT
