THE GROWING DEMAND FOR CLICK AND COLLECT, THE HYBRID RETAIL MODEL

Click and collect

European Click and Collect turnover forecasted to reach €45.1 billion by 2023, e-payments play a key role

The experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, with physical shops forced to shut down for several weeks due to mandated stay-at-home orders, has made it definitively clear how digital is essential for the survival of retail.

An eCommerce market that has seen unprecedented growth over the last couple of years is Food and Beverage. The highest increase has been registered in the countries that have been hardest hit by the pandemic. The percentage of shoppers who bought groceries online during the pandemic, who did not do so previously, was 30% in Spain, 22% in France, 20% in the UK and Italy. [1]

In Europe overall, the online grocery channel experienced a growth of around 55 percent over the previous year in 2020. [2] Although home delivery accounted for the majority, 32% of European consumers did more Click and Collect. [3]

Also known as ‘Buy Online, Pickup in Store’ (BOPIS), Click and Collect is a hybrid e-commerce model in which customers purchase or select items online and pick them up in-store or at a centralised collection point.

In an otherwise tumultuous year, Click and Collect has proved to be a highly effective business strategy, which is likely to be here for the long run. Across Europe, its turnover is forecasted to reach €45.1 billion by 2023, almost doubling on the previous year’s estimate of €26.7 billion. [4]

There are many benefits for adopting Click and Collect for both businesses and their customers.

When it comes to customers, being able to use Click and Collect when shopping not only saves them money by eliminating shipping fees, but also allows them to choose when to pick up their order, based on their timings and needs. In addition to this, using Click and Collect can help reinforce a sense of community on local high streets, encouraging spending with small businesses, which is beneficial for all involved. [5]

Last but not least, by having their purchase already paid for, customers simply have to collect it, without having to face in-store checkout queues: one more key benefit of Click and Collect, if we consider that 60% of shoppers view long queues as the major pain point while shopping in-store. [6]

The main lesson for retailers is that the ability to adapt offerings to fast-changing consumer behaviours and flexibly adjusting their services, payment methods included, is no longer optional.

Today more than ever, digitising payments plays a pivotal role for any retail business.

Furthermore, with a rising number of available methods, it is vital to diversify payment options. Indeed, one of the reasons why potential customers leave right before the conversion is the absence of their preferred payment solution. [7]

A phenomenon that certainly deserves attention is the remarkable growth of account-to-account (A2A) payments [8], alternative method based on online banking allowing users to pay digitally by transferring funds directly from their bank account into the payee’s one.

Examples of A2A payments, which have seen a 50% increase in Europe in the last two years, include Online Banking e-Payments (OBEP) solutions like iDEAL in The Netherlands, giropay in Germany, eps-Überweisung in Austria, and MyBank in Italy.

It is estimated that as many as 20-30% of traditional businesses, based on face-to-face interaction, will soon go digital [9]. Interestingly, still today in different contexts, the concept of or just the term “digitisation” – even when only referring to payments – mistakenly evokes major financial and technological investments. 

A false myth that can be easily dispelled: let’s consider, as an example, the MyBank pay-by-link service offered by banks, which belongs to the alternative methods based on online banking.  This solution allows merchants to collect online via a payment link sent to customers via e-mail, text message or QR code, without the need to have or modify an existing e-commerce website. Essentially a ready-to-use tool, the MyBank pay-by-link solution does not require any purchase of equipment, any technological interventions or significant investments for retailers.

How does it work? Merchants simply access their own dedicated account to generate a unique payment link. In order to do that, they only need to enter the customer’s email address or mobile phone number, the amount and the reason for payment. As customers click on the payment link, they will land on a customised page to select their bank and access their online banking service with their usual credentials. Here, a pre-filled wire transfer form is immediately available to them and just a final click is required to authorize the transaction, whose confirmation is received by both customers and merchants within a few seconds.

So, this is an easy-to-use, advantageous and versatile tool, which allows retailers to digitise their payment collection processes in an uncomplicated way, not only when it comes to businesses that already have an online point of sale, but also for small local brick-and-mortar shops getting customers’ orders in-store or over the phone.

Digitising payment collection or enriching the choice of e-payment methods offered to customers are important aspects of a customer-centric strategy with the objective of better responding to their needs and improve their shopping experience. At the same time, it provides a good basis for rethinking the in-store experience and embracing omnichannel.

Click and Collect can help retail businesses speed up their digitalization process and ensure greater proximity to consumers. Furthermore, it is an excellent up-selling opportunity which increases customer traffic to physical stores and facilitates retention.

In short, the Click and Collect retail model combined with a frictionless and secure payment experience as the one provided by MyBank from any device, is a win-win for both businesses and their customers.

 

 

 

[1] https://www.apptus.com/whitepapers/how-covid-19-affected-ecommerce-in-europe/

[2] https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/a-year-like-no-other-for-european-grocery-retailers-the-state-of-the-industry-post-2020

[3] https://www.eitfood.eu/media/news-pdf/COVID-19_Study_-_European_Food_Behaviours_-_Report.pdf

[4] https://www.statista.com/statistics/986388/click-and-collect-turnover-european-countries/

[5] https://squareup.com/ie/en/townsquare/how-does-click-and-collect-work

[6] https://viscovery.com/news.php?act=view&id=53

[7] https://mybank.eu/en/abandoned-checkout-recovery-tactics-for-your-ecommerce/

[8] https://mybank.eu/en/account-to-account-the-fastest-growing-payment-method-in-the-world/

17 Feb 2022

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