The Warehouse latches onto ‘click and collect’ trend

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The Warehouse has launched a ‘Click and Collect’ store in the Auckland CBD for customers collecting online purchases.

The pop up store on Customs Street is 30 square metres with no inventory, unlike the retailer’s suburban stores known as Red Sheds.

Customers shopping online can select this store for collection for purchases. They can also shop at the store through its ‘Endless Aisles’ service and pay by credit or debit core. The store is cashless.

Endless Aisles is available in all The Warehouse stores and links checkouts with The Warehouse website. All stores can access the full range online and makes that available to customers at checkout.

“The store is an opportunity for the company to test the concept and learn what works best for customers, before considering opening similar stores at other sites convenient to large numbers of customers,” says Craig Jordan, chief digital officer, The Warehouse.

Craig Jordan, The Warehouse chief digital officer: ‘The store is an opportunity for the company to test the concept and learn what works best for customers.’

“Click and Collect is proving very popular among our customers, as they enjoy the convenience of being able to pop into a store or pick-up point, grab their order and keep moving,” he says.

The Warehouse Group has reported its online sales have grown from $18.8 million in 2011 to $149.2 million this year.

Jordan says a ‘clicks and bricks’ retail model was proving to be more effective than pure online especially for the range of products at The Warehouse, because of the choice and flexibility it offered customers.

On trend

Deloitte has named ‘click and collect’ as among the top technology, media and telecommunications trends that will be making the greatest impact this year. It predicts the number of ‘click and collect’ locations in Europe will reach half a million in 2015, a 20 per cent increase on the previous year.

New Zealand retailers are also predicted to expand through ‘click and collect’, according to a report Deloitte presented at the recent Minter Ellison Rudd Watts’ Technology, Media and Telecommunications Summit in Auckland.

The trend, says Deloitte, is driven by the convenience of shopping online. The report states an estimated $3 billion is spent annually by New Zealand consumers in online purchases. ‘Click and collect’ will likely become an increasingly fundamental part of e-commerce offerings, says Deloitte.

Related: CIOs urged to take the lead in testing the business cases for digital technologies

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