Retailers Can Offer This Powerful Sales Option And Boost Profits
Recently, some retail chains have offered on-line sales through their websites with
the option of picking up the merchandise at one of their store locations. They've made special deals and arrangements with selected courier companies to forward bulk shipments of multiple orders to a specific store at low cost. Multiple shipments and prearranged deals with freight companies dramatically reduces the shipping costs that often makes "one-of" shipments direct to the customer unprofitable.
As E-Commerce matures, we find that more and more customers cross shop between our websites and their bricks and mortar counterparts. Customers that shop through both distribution channels appear to be more loyal to your organization too.
Another great advantage to offering store pick-ups for online purchases is the inducement to get your customers back in your store! What a great opportunity to meet face to face again with your customer. You may exchange dialogue that further builds loyalty, or you may be able to make an additional in-store sale.
Bulk shipments to the store may also open new possibilities to offer prohibitively larger items on your site that cannot be shipped as a single order to the customer. One retailer is now adopting this concept and enables customers to actually buy a whole garden gazebo on line for store pick up. The garden gazebo in this case is too large to stock in all the stores and just could not be shipped to a customer's house at a profit. However, this massive product can be ordered on line and is forwarded to the nearest store to the customer for pickup in ten easy to handle boxes that easily fit into the rear of a van or pickup truck. This retailer used to offer this item in only a handful of their larger stores. Today, through the website, any customer in the chain can see detailed pictures of the gazebo and order it at a competitive cost. In some cases, if a corporate truck makes frequent deliveries to your stores, you can piggy back these bulk shipments with standard inventory shipments and eliminate the need to use a third party carrier altogether.
This concept can enhance sales and open new possibilities even if you just have a handful of stores spanning one city. Through lower freight costs (or even free if you piggy back your standard shipments in your own vehicle...), you can entice and motivate your customers to buy on line with in-store pick ups. They save money and you have an opportunity to enhance profits while building loyalty too!
Take Action Today:
1) Consider using your in-house freight system or arrange a deal with a third party carrier to offer in-store pickups on your website.
2) Review what products can be offered for in store pickup and give the customer a shipping discount (or free shipping) if they select this shipping option.
3) Consider offering items for in store pickup only that you would like to sell on line, but cannot ship competitively through individual customer shipments.
by: Ronp
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