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According to a small study to be released on
Tuesday by retail-intelligence firm StellaService, in-store
pickup saved shoppers just 96 seconds on average compared with
searching for items on their own. In a few cases, in-store
pickup took longer.
In-store pickup is one of many services being tested as
retailers try to use their stores as mini-shipping hubs to get
items to shoppers more quickly. It comes in response to
competition from the No. 1 U.S. online retailer, Amazon.com Inc,
which has streamlined its delivery service.
The StellaService study, based on 44 visits to stores in the
South run by 11 retailers, is one of the most comprehensive
studies so far of the in-store pickup service. The results show
that retailers have no uniform approach to the issue.
"It's amazing just how much simpler the process would have been
if someone had just put up a sign," said Ty McMahan, senior
director of content for StellaService, adding that retailers are
spending "tens of millions of dollars" on these initiatives.
Shoppers spent an average of 5 minutes and 24 seconds in a store
when trying to pick up their online orders. Those who did not
use the in-store pickup feature spent an average of 7 minutes in
the store, according to the study.
But in-store pickup saved just 30 seconds at Target and Toys 'R
Us. At Macy's Inc, StellaService shoppers were not quite sure
where to go. In-store pickup took 8 minutes and 30 seconds,
while those who walked in spent 5 minutes at a Macy's store.
By contrast, in-store pickup took only 2 minutes at Office Depot
Inc, compared with 4 minutes for those who walked in.
Home Depot Inc and Nordstrom Inc were the only other retailers
that were slower at in-store pickup. Macy's and Home Depot could
not be immediately reached for comment.
Nordstrom said one of the reasons they offer in-store pickup for
online items is to guarantee customers that it will be there for
them if they make a visit to the store.
"We are always looking at ways to improve the service for our
customers," Nordstrom spokeswoman Brooke White said.
(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Additional Reporting by Nathan
Layne; Editing by Ken Wills)
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