BOPIS vs. Same-Day Delivery: Meeting Customer Expectations in Retail Fulfillment

In recent years, the retail landscape has undergone significant transformations, with buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) emerging as a popular fulfillment option. While the pandemic accelerated its adoption, retailers now face the challenge of balancing BOPIS with other methods of meeting customer expectations, like same-day delivery.

According to a Capital One survey, 87 percent of retailers now offer BOPIS, and more than a third of U.S. consumers regularly choose this option when placing orders. Domestic BOPIS retail sales totaled $113.2 billion in 2023 and are projected to grow 16.8 percent annually, outpacing the overall e-commerce market.

BOPIS provides retailers with several advantages. It increases foot traffic to physical stores, which can lead to additional impulse purchases when customers come to collect their orders. It also helps reduce shipping costs compared to home delivery options. BOPIS also allows better inventory control across physical and online channels, enabling retailers to optimize their stock levels and reduce the risk of overstocking or stock-outs.

Complex Infrastructure

While BOPIS offers clear benefits, it also adds a new layer of significant challenges. For starters, retailers must distribute inventory to stores, essentially paying to move it twice, which can impact profit margins, especially on small orders.

Staffing and resource allocation also pose difficulties. Dedicated staff are required to pick items from shelves and fulfill online orders, adding a new layer of responsibility to store associates’ roles. According to a NAPCO Research survey, nearly half of retailers cite the speed of preparing orders for in-store pickup as their biggest BOPIS challenge, highlighting the need for efficient processes.

Space constraints for order storage and pickup present another hurdle. The survey identified a need for dedicated in-store space as a challenge for 44 percent of retailers.

The implementation also presents customer service challenges. Maintaining consistent staffing for pickup areas during store hours can be difficult to predict, and efficient systems are needed to quickly locate and transfer orders to customers for an efficient pickup experience.

Alternative Delivery Option

Given the complexities of BOPIS, many retailers are exploring same-day delivery as an alternative fulfillment method. By delivering directly to customers’ homes, retailers can avoid the need for dedicated pickup areas and reduce in-store traffic, alleviating some space constraints and operational complexities associated with BOPIS. They can also capitalize on impulse buys by offering same-day delivery for free if carts reach a certain price threshold.

Same-day delivery can also potentially streamline inventory management, as items don’t need to be distributed across multiple store locations for pickup. This centralized approach to fulfillment can lead to more efficient stock control and reduced instances of items being out of stock at specific locations. These dedicated facilities can be designed specifically for rapid order fulfillment without the constraints of a traditional retail store layout.

From a customer perspective, same-day delivery enhances convenience by eliminating the need to travel to a store. This is particularly appealing for those with time constraints or transportation limitations, potentially expanding the retailer’s customer base.

Furthermore, same-day delivery offers scalability advantages. With crowdsourced delivery networks, retailers can easily adjust their delivery capacity based on demand fluctuations, providing flexibility that can be challenging to achieve with a BOPIS model reliant on fixed store locations and staff.

The choice between BOPIS and same-day delivery isn’t an either-or proposition. Successful retailers will likely need to offer a mix of fulfillment options to meet diverse customer needs and preferences. By understanding the complexities of each approach and strategically investing in technology, infrastructure and staff training, retailers can position themselves to thrive in this new era of omnichannel retail.

Dennis Moon is the chief operating officer of Roadie, a crowdsourced delivery platform that enables urgent, same-day and local next-day delivery.