Top Omnichannel Retailers Adopting BOPIS Programs at a High Rate
Looking for ways to meet the demands of online shoppers that increasingly expect same-day and next-day delivery, spurred in large part by Amazon.com's Prime program, omnichannel retailers are implementing buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) programs at a growing rate. In fact, according to Total Retail's 2019 Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers report, 63 percent of the companies evaluated offer at least some form of BOPIS, up from 52 percent in our 2018 analysis. Even more telling is that in our 2017 analysis, just 37 percent of the top 100 omnichannel retailers offered a BOPIS program. Each of the top-ranked retailers in this year's report — Bloomingdale's, J.C. Penney, Lids, Designer Brands, Belk, Champs Sports, Lane Bryant, UGG, Staples — received the maximum number of points for a well-executed BOPIS program.
Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers have recognized the value in using their stores as hubs to quickly fulfill customers’ online orders. Consider the following statistics from Invesp, which illustrate growing consumer demand for BOPIS programs:
- 67 percent of shoppers in the U.S. have used BOPIS in the past six months;
- 75 percent of shoppers who have used BOPIS say they are likely to make additional BOPIS purchases; and
- 50 percent of consumers have decided where to shop online based on whether they could pick up their order in-store.
Not only is it important for omnichannel retailers to implement a BOPIS program to meet growing customer demand for the service, it makes smart business sense as well. Retailers that have BOPIS programs save on shipping costs and, perhaps more importantly, are driving traffic into their stores, where customers are making additional purchases when picking up their online orders. According to Invesp, nearly half (49 percent) of BOPIS customers made additional purchases when picking up their items in-store.
Tips for Implementing a BOPIS Program
With the value of a well-executed BOPIS program established, here are five tips for retailers to get started (these tips were extracted from recent Total Retail articles on the topic by Donna Logback of Package Concierge and Raj Ramanand of Signifyd):
- Create an experience. By providing a seamless, consistent experience across all possible channels, retailers offer consumers the convenience of purchasing when and where they like. Customer satisfaction killer No. 1: Confusion over the BOPIS process will often result in shoppers abandoning ship.
- Gain insight into inventory. Retailers need to ensure customers can see store-level inventory when making an online item selection for store pickup. Because shoppers want their merchandise ASAP, and they’ll likely only consider items that are in-stock and ready for pickup, a retailer’s transparency into inventory is paramount. BOPIS won't work if retailers don’t have a clearly stated fulfillment promise that they can consistently deliver upon. Customer satisfaction killer No. 2: a shopper ordering an item, only to find it isn’t available once they check out.
- Deploy a DIY pickup solution. Automated lockers, particularly those that integrate next-generation technologies, will streamline the self-serve component of BOPIS fulfillment, which in turn frees up employees to serve customers in other capacities. Customer satisfaction killer No. 3: shoppers having to stand in a long line and wait for an employee to retrieve their order.
- Follow fraud best practices. Consider a customer’s order history. Have you seen this customer before? Is he or she BOPIS user? Have orders from the same customer come in unusually quickly or in unusually high numbers? Understand that traditional fraud management systems that rely on matching billing and shipping addresses won’t help with BOPIS orders. Rely on additional signals, such as online behavior, social media activity, device identity and IP address. Go beyond confirmation emails to verify identity with matching IDs and credit cards.
- Use secret shoppers. Evaluate your procedures and practices with hired shoppers who can determine whether associates are following established safeguards and delivering on BOPIS’ promise of convenience. Approach the effort as an educational program, not a punitive one.
To learn more about the BOPIS programs of top omnichannel retailers, download Total Retail's 2019 Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers Report today!
