click and collect

How Zara is using in-store tech to improve its frustrating shopper experience

Last year, a particularly frustrating experience in Zara’s Oxford Street store lead me to write this article, praising retailers who – in contrast to the Spanish retailer – typically excel when it comes to their in-store customer experience.

Since that time, it appears Zara has undergone quite a few changes, largely through an increased investment and focus on technology.

Will click & collect be killed off by same-day delivery?

There’s a real debate to be had as to whether retailers’ omni-channel hopes are realistic or delusional.

But for retailers clinging to the idea that there will always be a place for physical stores, click-and-collect capabilities are often touted as evidence that a brick and mortar presence still offers advantages.

New data, however, suggests that click and collect might not be as important as some retailers believe.

Starbucks’ new click & collect app: is it any good?

Starbucks Order and Pay has launched in London, England.

It’s essentially click and collect for a rapidly cooling beverage – a frightening prospect, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Whilst we know the Starbucks app is good, a pioneer in mobile payment and loyalty, I thought I’d better expense a couple of coffees and try out this new Order and Pay feature. So, is it any good?

How French Connection can improve its multichannel promise

French Connection announced this week that almost a quarter of its sales took place online in 2014.

Ecommerce represents 23% of its total retail revenue, which is 20% up from the previous year and as also reported in InternetRetailing 24% of all orders were fulfilled using its click and collect service. This follows its recent investment in multichannel services, from the website platform to the warehouse.

Lets take a look at French Connection and examine how the retailer can improve its multichannel standing, paying particular attention to delivery, returns, mobile and social customer service.

How John Lewis presents its click and collect service

As reported in our post discussing what we’ve learnt about click and collect since Christmas 2014, click and collect at John Lewis overtook home delivery for the first time at the end of last year.

56% of John Lewis’s online customers chose to collect their goods from stores, rather than have them delivered to home addresses. Overall, click and collect orders grew by 47% compared to the same time last year. John Lewis online orders rose by 21.6% to £1.4bn.