Walmart, Nordstrom rolling out dedicated click-and-collect stores

In other words, these will not be stores where shoppers can walk in, view the merchandise and shop, reports CNN. In recent weeks Walmart opened a 40,000-square-foot Walmart Pickup Point outside Chicago. Customers who have preordered online drive up to the bays, and Walmart staff then load up their car trunks. The shoppers do not enter the store at all, CNN reports.

Nordstrom Local operates similar hubs in Los Angeles and is scheduled to open two in New York City in September. These enable shoppers to pick up and return merchandise and to have alterations performed as needed. Nordstrom also offers click-and-collect pickup at all of its 100 stores. Walmart says it will be doing this at about 3,000 stores by the end of this year.

Walmart Pick-up Point “gives busy customers the ability to shop how, when and where they want,” said Nicole Olson, a store manager, in a printed release.

Some 15 percent of U.S. shoppers have already shopped this way at some point, and click-and-collect sales will probably have reached about $35 billion annually by next year, according to financial services firm Cowen.