Aug 3, 2022

New Ecommerce Strategy - Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS)

What is Buy Online, Pick Up in Store (BOPIS)?

BOPIS is an omnichannel retail strategy that allows customers to buy online and pick-up the products in physical stores or pick-up points once the order is ready.

Customers can place order and make payment through online platform or mobile APP, in addition to waiting for home delivery, customer can also choose to pick-up the goods in physical stores or preferred pick-up points, e.g. convenience stores, and supermarkets etc.

What Do Customers Think About BOPIS

According to a survey conducted by Statsta.com in 2021, here are some thoughts of customers to BOPIS -

50% of respondents considered BOPIS as more convenient.
46% of respondents thought that BOPIS can help them to save time.
45% of respondents advised that they did not want to pay for shipping fee.

The Benefits of BOPIS for Consumers

This new shopping model seems gaining quite some support from customers, but how does BOPIS benefit consumers?

Convenience

Customers all want options and flexibility in their shopping, and BOPIS is just a right fit to them. Customer can select the pick-up time and location through online platform or mobile APP, based on their needs and preference.

Customers can even check the real-time inventory of each pick up location before selecting their desired pick up point to ensure that they won’t be disappointed by the unpleasant stock out.

Save on Shipping Cost

Home delivery can be convenient, but it comes at a cost to customers, and this cost is always the reason why customers abandon their carts.

As an alternative, BOPIS allows customers to reduce or even eliminate the shipping cost. Customers can still enjoy the online shopping experience but no longer need to pay a penny on shipping services.

Efficiency

Instead of waiting for 2 days or longer for the home delivery, BOPIS offers a quicker option to customers, which is to pick up the in-stock items in physical store in few hours (or faster) after placing the order.

The Benefits of BOPIS for Retailers

Retailers can also be benefited from BOPIS. For retailers who have physical stores, BOPIS is definitely a great way to strengthen their omnichannel strategy.

Increase In Store Traffic

BOPIS orders will naturally bring traffic to physical stores as customers have to pick up the goods from stores, and this creates an opportunity to generate extra sales on top of the BOPIS orders.

When customers come to the store to pick up their orders, they might look around and browse for more items, and finally spend more money in store. According to a survey, 75% of BOPIS customers are likely to buy extra products when picking up their orders in store, which is absolutely the good news to retailers.

Inventory Management

To enable BOPIS, it is necessary to implement real-time inventory control to ensure online shoppers knowing the stock availability of each pick up location. In this sense, accurate stock figure is vital to ensure optimum customer experience and satisfaction.

After brining in the real-time inventory management system, retailers will be able to anticipate stock outs, prevent losses caused by inappropriate fulfilment, and replenish inventory intelligently.

Flexibility

BOPIS enables retailers to reach a more seamless inventory management. Retailers can choose to fulfill online orders with warehouse inventory, or in-store store if the warehouse is out of stock, which will make the inventory management more flexible and effective.

Customer Insight

When customers pick-up the order in physical stores, retailers will have an opportunity to direct contact with online customer to collect their needs and feedbacks. Retailers can then analysis and integrate the customer behavior for both online and offline to ensure their offers are attractive enough to their customers.

Collaborate Different Retail Points to be Physical Pick-up Point

To make the online purchase even more convenience, apart from retailers’ own stores, some retailers will also collaborate different retail points to be physical pick-up points for their customers, for example Zalora, ASOS and IKEA.

Customers can buy and pay through retailer’s website or mobile APP, then pick up or return their orders in these collaborate pick up points, says 7-11, who has more than 400 stores in Hong Kong, and this option will definitely create a more frictionless shopping experience for customers.

BOPIS is one of the ways to enhance the sales in both online and offline mode. However, retailers would need to overcome the challenges brought by BOPIS before heading to success, such as real-time inventory accuracy, automated replenishment, real-time order tracking, and in-store logistics etc.

Interested in knowing how to deal with these challenges? Or need some support in implementing your BOPIS services?