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What are the Benefits of Click & Collect

Online shopping is ever increasing, with more and more shoppers choosing to purchase items from the comfort of their home, rather than facing the hustle and bustle of town centres and supermarkets. The benefits of online shopping are clear – it’s easy, convenient, can be done at any time day or night, and you don’t even have to get out of your PJs. 
 

The online channel is increasing year-on-year for Food & Grocery shopping as shoppers make use of the convenience of this channel. For families in particular – children don’t have to be dragged around the supermarket and mums and dads aren't forced to juggle a baby, shopping bags, and an umbrella all at the same time. The food is delivered to the door (even to the kitchen table in some cases). But of course, as with anything, online shopping isn't flawless. Shoppers complain about delivery charges, missed deliveries, and substitutions, amongst others. That’s where Click & Collect comes in.

 

Click & Collect works initially in the same way as normal online shopping – the shopper goes online and chooses their items, and proceeds to the checkout. However, instead of the items being delivered to the shopper’s home, the shopper picks them up outside of the home.
 

You might think, what is the point in that? Well, as we’ve mentioned, there are issues with standard online shopping. With Click & Collect the charges are much lower, and in some cases the service is free of charge. This is a great advantage as Evolution found that in 2011, over 50% of shoppers cited the cost of delivery as a barrier to online shopping.

 

Also, shoppers don’t have to wait around for delivery. Many find the delivery slots offered to be too large of a window and un-flexible. Either the shopper has to set aside a large portion of the day in which they can’t leave the house, or if something comes up, they can’t change the time. With Click & Collect, items are stored for collection at a time that suits the shopper. All they have to do is turn up and the rest is done for them. This still eliminates the trouble of in-store shopping, but does allow them the option of nipping in-store if they have forgotten any items, or just want to check out the offers.
 

Of course standard online shopping is still a better option for some shoppers (those without a car, for example), and the system is still in its relative infancy, but at Evolution we see great potential for Click & Collect in the future.  Our latest research in France highlights the advanced nature of this model compared to here in the UK. For shoppers opinions and further insights into Click & Collect, please see our 2012 report on this subject.

 

Click & Collect Becoming a Popular Option Amongst Shoppers

1 in 3 shoppers think that ‘Click & Collect’ is a good idea for online grocery shopping. Recent research has found that despite the current low levels of usage of this new service, the potential of it is high.

Considering that the option for click & collect has been available from some retailers for a decade now, it may be surprising that over half of shoppers have still never used the service. However, it has only recently become a widespread amenity amongst retailers, with new marketing campaigns advertising this type of online shopping. In fact, a quarter of shoppers already say that they use it occasionally, which shows the opportunity this service has in retail. 

 

Click & collect for grocery shopping is a very new concept. Many retailers do not offer this service and those that do, do not offer collection from their full range of stores. We can’t then be surprised that adoption of click & collect is still relatively low. We expect that as the features of the service becomes better known and understood amongst shoppers, uptake of this service will increase.

The idea of a Click & Collect service not only appeals to current online shoppers, but to in-store shoppers also. Considering that the main issues with standard online shopping fall into the category of delivery, if Click & Collect can successfully overcome these issues there is no reason that it cannot become as popular, if not more so, than having orders individually delivered to shoppers homes. 

The proportion of shoppers that have used Click & Collect is currently around  48%. In the above diagram we can see that the highest users live in Scotland and the South West, and the lowest uptake is in Wales and Northern Ireland. 

Impact of retailer Christmas sales performance on future performance

Retailers published their Christmas sales figures recently and again some performed better than others. What do sales figures mean in terms of future sales though? Can a good result cause a domino effect resulting in even more sales? We asked shoppers where and why they shopped for Christmas and how they feel about retailers’ Christmas sales figures.

16% of shoppers say they didn’t do a main shop for Christmas. Of those who did 88% say they used their normal grocery store and 12% shopped somewhere else. Of those who shopped somewhere else for their Christmas food shop the main reasons for doing this included using a variety of stores for different products. Quality and price were both determinants of store choice. The most cited reason was using a variey of store for different products.

The proportion of shoppers switching to another store for better quality or for shopping around for promotions was pretty much equal. The effect of the tendency to trade up or shop around for deals was visible in the retailer sales figures over the Christmas period. Both ends of the price spectrum, the discounters and Waitrose, recorded strong performance in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Do shoppers pay attention to the retailers’ sales performance then and does it influence where they shop? Of those who had heard the grocery retailers’ Christmas sales figures just over half (52%) said they weren’t influenced by them. Considering this, almost as many (48%) say they are influenced by the sales performance of retailers to some extent.

Retailers’ Christmas performance – How Did They Do?

The competition for festive shoppers started weeks before Christmas. How did each retailer do? The Kantar Worldpanel figures reveal that overall the grocery market grew by 3.2% in the 12 weeks leading to 23 December. The strongest performances were recorded at both ends of the price spectrum. Comparison of retailer performances isn’t however quite straightforward as the results vary depending on the time period in question. Each retailer have released their own figures for different time periods. To make the comparison simpler and more objective, we use the Kantar Worldpanel 12 weeks to 23 December like-for-like data.

Sainsbury’s was again the only one of the big four retailers that managed to increase their market share compared to last year. In the 12 weeks leading to 23 December Sainsbury’s experienced the highest growth but in the 4 weeks before Christmas it was Tesco  that took the spotlight.
 

Tesco bounced back from last year’s poor festive performance with their like-for-like sales in the 12 weeks to 23 December increasing by 2.9% (4.2% for the 4 week to 25 December). In the same period Sainsbury’s growth was 3.4% and Asda increased their sales by 2.2%. Morrisons was the only one of the big four retailers to report a drop in like for like sales in the 12 weeks leading to 23 December, 0.6% compared to the previous year.

The discounters on the other hand were the real winners of Christmas 2012 showing very strong performance. Traditionally discounters have lost out on their share of the Christmas shopping as shoppers have tended to trade up in the past. Aldi increased their sales by 30.1% and hit their highest ever market share of 3.2%. Also Lidl and Iceland performed well, with 10.8% and 9.7% growth rates respectively. Shoppers didn’t however just go for the lowest price. At the other end of the price spectrum Waitrose recorded a strong performance and increased their sales from last year (5.4%).

 

Check out our thought piece on the impact of Christmas sales figures on future performance here