Surveying Consumer Attitudes to ‘Buy Online, Pick Up in Store’

In recent times, we’ve seen a resurgence of bricks and mortar in retail. Perhaps the biggest signifier for this trend was Amazon’s $14bn purchase of Whole Foods. The online giant is definitely assessing how to make the more traditional, physical retail formats work, and there are more developments to come. But the rise of new, integrated delivery options like ‘click and collect’ or (as they say in the US) ‘buy online, pick up in store’ (BOPUS) has also driven a reassessment of what retailers can do with their physical stores. The technical possibilities are growing, and it’s also being driven by consumer behaviour — retail customers’ expectations for delivery flexibility, and other things besides, are on the rise.

To gain a deeper understanding of this trend, we recently surveyed 1500+ people in the US, to understand customer behaviour and their expectations across three key areas:

• Their online purchasing habits
• Their appetite for a BOPUS service and what they want from it
• Their expectations for the future of retail

We found that over 50% of people thought it important for a retailer to offer BOPUS. Recognising this means there’s serious thinking to do for retailers of all types, but there are plenty of opportunities to deliver new and improved services designed around the customer. BOPUS encourages customers to come in-store and opens up the opportunity for retailers to interact with them in a physical space. We think it’s these interactions that will become crucial to differentiating brands and creating advocates.

If you’d like to read the full results and our thoughts on about them, download our research here.

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