15 stats that show why click-and-collect is so important for retailers

Reserve-and-collect services are becoming ever more important for ecommerce retailers as consumers increasingly expect to be able to pick up their purchases when and where they choose.

In the past few weeks Asda has said it is looking to expand it click-and-collect service by installing collection points in new locations, which may include petrol forecourts, tube stations and university campuses.

Similarly Selfridges has opened a new drive-thru collection point on London’s Oxford Street, while a new service called StreetHub has launched with a view to helping small, independent retailers tap into the click-and-collect trend.

With this in mind, I thought it would be useful to round up some stats which show just why retailers are so keen to provide new delivery services to their customers.

By David Moth November 18th 2013 10:16

And for more information on this topic, check out our blog posts looking at 10 ways to improve the click and collect customer experience…

79% of consumers have used click-and-collect in the past year

A survey run by Econsultancy in August found that almost two-thirds of consumers (63%) have bought products online before collecting them in-store at least once in the past 12 months, while 16% use reserve-and-collect at least once a month.
Just over one-fifth (22%) of respondents said they had never used reserve-and-collect.
The survey also found that 50% of respondents had abandoned a purchase online due to unsatisfactory delivery options.

Do you reserve products online before collecting them in store? How often?

Halfords scores 86% of sales through click-and-collect

Halfords introduced click-and-collect three years ago and now 86% of all its sales are for in-store collection.

40% of consumers used click-and-collect before Christmas 2012

Econsultancy’s Christmas 2012 Online Shopping Survey found that 40% of UK shoppers used click-and-collect over Christmas.
However in the US the figure was much lower at just 17% of consumers.
Even so, it’s likely that the number of consumers using a click-and-collect service will have increased slightly this year as the service is slowly becoming more popular among consumers.

Did you reserve any items online for in-store collection this Christmas? (1,000 UK and 1,000 US respondents)

The survey also highlighted the importance of offering a range of delivery options online, as a quarter of respondents (24%) said they would avoid making a purchase if the delivery options didn’t suit them.

Did you avoid making an online purchase due to a lack of convenient delivery options? (1,000 UK respondents)

The French click-and-collect their groceries

One-fifth (20%) of French consumers have used a drive-thru collection for groceries ordered online.
Leclerc, the market leader with 352 ‘Drives’ saw first-half sales in that segment jump 68% to €720m, compared with overall French sales growth of 4.7% to €15.9bn.
The retailer estimates that its drive-thrus poach a quarter of their sales from its own stores, but the rest comes from its competitor’s stores.

Tesco planning to expand its service

Ecommerce accounted for around 5% of Tesco’s sales in 2012/13. Of this total, two-thirds of non-food online orders were collected at one of its 1,500 collection points.
However food items are still mostly delivered to the customer’s home.

Argos achieves 42% of online sales through click-and-collect

Argos is the UK’s third most successful ecommerce retailer and achieves 42% of total sales online. The retailer’s ‘check and reserve’ service accounted for 31% of total online sales in Q4 2012.

Selfridges has high hopes for click-and-collect

Selfridges launched a click-and-collect service in May this year and also opened a drive-thru service at its London Oxford Street store this month.
It expects click-and-collect to account for at least 25% of all online orders.