A mystery shopper study of BOPIS found that 90 percent of retailers had the online-ordered product ready and waiting at the store at the promised pick-up time. But shortcomings around BOPIS execution were also revealed.
The study from Kibo, the e-tailing group and Multichannel Merchant shopped 30 retailers that offered in-store pickup or reserve and evaluated 85 metrics, including retailer apps and the in-store experience.
The pickup counter was easy to find at 83 percent of stores. Less impressive was that while associates were able to locate the order under a minute at 43 percent of stores, 50 percent took between one to four minutes and the remaining seven percent presumably took even longer. Also, just half had in-store pickup signage. Ten percent of the stores had self-serve kiosks.
As far as sales associates go, 90 percent had access to store inventory and 87 percent could place orders. Yet a little more than a quarter (27 percent) of the store associates sought help during the transactions. Moreover, only seven percent tried to save the sale when a return or exchange was requested.
Of the apps examined, only 42 percent promoted the merchant’s in-store pickup offering. Half of the apps displayed a pickup time of less than one hour from the time the order was placed, and 33 percent had pickup times ranging from one to 24 hours. Only 37 percent of the apps allowed someone other than the purchaser to pick the order up.
On inventories, 93 percent of apps showed enterprise-wide inventory and 88 percent indicated in-stock status at an individual store, yet only 17 percent showed store quantity, or number of items on hand. Twenty-nine percent of apps offered live chat capabilities and 30 percent had text notification capability.
Said Jennifer Sherman, SVP, product and strategy, Kibo, in a statement, “Advanced retail commerce technology, store associate training and engagement, and communication with the consumer all need to work together to provide the seamless experience consumers expect.”