Before 2020, many retailers saw BOPIS as a growing channel but weren’t sure how big it could get. The pandemic made clear that customers liked ordering online and picking up in-store, making BOPIS a permanent fixture of retail operations.
Retailers’ investments in crafting the perfect customer experience (CX) will continuously evolve along with the needs of consumers. Data shows that the COVID-19 pandemic inspired a new generation of consumers to embrace one particular facet of the CX: buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS).
Why Dedicated
That’s why retailers today face a new question: How do they provide fulfillment options that will profitably scale? One potential strategy is to offer fulfillment options that give consumers a choice.
Typically, retailers took a standard approach to BOPIS. They put a desk near the store entrance, allowing customers to get in and out quickly. That worked — to an extent. But shoppers’ thirst for convenience and contactless shopping calls for a new option.
In the early 2010s, Amazon began offering customers the option of picking up items at
Automated Lockers:
A Low-Maintenance Alternative
How Automated Lockers Work for BOPIS
Advantages of Using Automated Lockers for BOPIS
Automated Lockers as a Contactless Return Option
Click-and-collect retail is expected to jump 15.2% in 2021...
...and will make up 10% of all ecommerce retail sales.
560% increase in BOPIS at height of COVID-19 pandemic.
60% of consumers intend to use BOPIS post-pandemic
How Automated Lockers Work for BORIS
With lockers located outdoors or in an easily accessible location, retailers can provide 24/7 service for their customers. Shoppers can access products and use the lockers on their schedule, without being concerned about when the store is open or closed.
Ease the staffing crunch
Additional Sales
New Promotions
Flexible Sizes
New Branding Opportunities
Lockers as a Retail Storefront
Expanded Hours
Lockers don’t only have to live inside or near a store. Standalone lockers placed in well-trafficked areas can give retailers a physical presence in a location where they don’t currently have a traditional store footprint.
Outfitting lockers with bright vinyl wraps bring instant brand recognition, creating an in-store (or in-community) billboard. In addition, different wraps can serve as an extension of key seasonal or product promotions.
Choosing a locker system with flexible sizes allows retailers to scale up their BOPIS program. Initially, your research may have shown that most customers needed a particular locker size, but real-time usage shows that the lockers need to be flexible. Products like books or prescriptions need a smaller size, while pallets of mulch or sheets of plywood would need oversized lockers. Make sure the locker system you choose lets you adjust locker sizes to meet demand.
Retailers looking to increase the number of shoppers using lockers can provide incentives, such as $5 off a $20 purchase for all orders fulfilled via the locker. You also can include paper coupons and other offers into merchandise bags that contain a customer’s order. Some retailers also leverage QR codes on lockers to deliver promotions. This attracts people who may have spotted the locker system in the store to take a closer look.
Your customer comes to the store to retrieve the products they’ve bought online from your locker, but they may need a nudge to remember items they’ve forgotten, or they may want ideas about what else to buy. By positioning impulse items near the locker system the same as you would at the POS, you’re encouraging more sales.
Associates formerly positioned at a BOPIS desk can be redeployed in other critical customer-facing areas, such as curbside pickup or POS stations, in addition to keeping lockers stocked with customer purchases.
Ease the staffing crunch
Additional Sales
New Promotions
Flexible Sizes
New Branding Opportunities
Lockers as a Retail Storefront
Expanded Hours
$428 billion
in
U.S. merchandise returned in 2020
Keep Up With the Changing Pace of CX
While many retailers have made investments in ERP systems and data mining technologies to enhance their CX over the past few years, customer demands keep evolving. Automated locker solutions provide a flexible and cost-efficient option for stores to expand their BOPIS strategies, reduce friction from the customer journey and stay on top of shoppers’ needs.
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about package concierge®
about retail touchpoints
retail@packageconcierge.com
785.477.0706
Package Concierge® is the trusted provider of smart locker solutions. With millions of transactions, Package Concierge® combines expertise and technology to seamlessly automate fulfillment processes for retailers. As the only vertically integrated solution, Package Concierge® products are built in the U.S.A. and powered by proprietary software to deliver on security, design, and functionality. By collaborating with customers to understand and address their evolving needs, Package Concierge® delivers the highest quality solutions to optimize operations and enhance user experiences. Let Package Concierge® help you navigate BOPIS Order Fulfillment with ease. Visit www.packageconcierge.com/retail to schedule your consultation and begin your own pilot program.
info@retailtouchpoints.com
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Pickup Lockers
Need To Be Part of
Post-Pandemic
‘BOPIS 2.0’
stand-alone branded automated lockers and kiosks. While they started as more of a novelty,
lockers are emerging as a must-have in many retailers’ post-pandemic BOPIS strategies.
They’re simple to use for both store associates and customers, and today’s consumers see
them as a value-added part of their entire shopping experience.
The most sophisticated locker systems today connect seamlessly to your existing retail software. They also offer a simple and reliable consumer interface that gives you real-time and historical data you can use to enhance your BOPIS operations.
With lockers located outdoors or in an easily accessible location, retailers can provide 24/7 service for their customers. Shoppers can access products and use the lockers on their schedule, without being concerned about when the store is open or closed.
Expanded Hours
As BOPIS has been the talk of retail during the pandemic,
see its cousin — buy online, return in-store (BORIS) — as
an emerging way to help reduce return costs. Adding lockers
into the return equation is a win-win, creating a frictionless
CX and allowing consumers to conduct contactless returns.
As more consumers shop from their favorite device, retailers
must offer an easy-to-use return system. This is where
automated lockers can stand out.
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Step 4
The customer scans the barcode at the locker’s control panel to open the locker and retrieve their purchase.
Step
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Step 3
The customer receives an email with a barcode saying their purchase is ready for pickup.
Step
3
Step 2
Store associates retrieve the items from the floor or stockroom and put them into the assigned locker.
Step
2
Step 1
Step
1
A customer’s order is received by
store associates.
Step 1
A customer’s order is received by
store associates.
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Step
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Step
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Step
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Step
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Step 4
The customer receives a return receipt.
Step
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Step 3
The customer goes to the locker, swipes the barcode, opens the locker and deposits the return.
Step
3
Step 2
The retailer sends the customer an email with the return locker location and a barcode.
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2
Step 1
Step
1
A customer goes online and notifies the store of a return.
Step 1
A customer goes online and notifies the store of a return.
Step
1
While lockers deliver the capability of enhancing a retailer’s BOPIS process, they also can bring additional benefits to retailers, including:
Benefits of Automated Lockers Beyond BOPIS & BORIS
Store-to-Store Transfers
Set-Asides
Ship to Store
Better Than Curbside
Repair/Replacement
Drop Off and Pickup
Lockers may be beneficial for retailers who sell computers, shoes, watches or other repairable items. When a customer files a repair request online, stores can provide a barcode the customer will use to put the item into a store locker. Then, the store can email the customer once items are repaired and ready for pickup.
Store-to-Store Transfers
Today’s savviest retailers are creating an omnichannel experience by leveraging their store-to-store transfers for store-based fulfillment. Using an automated locker system located just outside a store’s front door can help facilitate these transfers. They allow associates at one location to process a transfer request, insert a code and deposit the transfer into the locker. Then, staff from the receiving store can pick up the transfer item at any time, day or night. In the same way, stores can use automated lockers to give last-mile delivery drivers a fast, convenient way to pick up merchandise.
Set-Asides
Let’s say a consumer calls your store and asks for a certain item in a specific size. If the associate finds the item in-stock, they can tag it with the shopper’s name and set it aside so the shopper can try it on once they get to the store. But set-asides can be inefficient for customers because associates have to retrieve the items. Even more frustration can ensue if the item gets lost in the back inventory. Lockers allow associates to put set-asides in a standard place where the customer can retrieve it without waiting, and then bring it to the desk if they decide to purchase the item.
Ship to Store
While customers enjoy this option, they find friction when they encounter a line at the customer order desk during merchandise pickup. Retailers using lockers to fulfill ship-to-store orders can have associates put the customer’s merchandise into a locker as soon as it arrives from a distribution center, allowing customers to retrieve products on their schedule.
Increased volume, combined with potential staffing shortages, can create long wait times and lines for curbside pick-up, something automated lockers easily resolves. They allow customers to pick up the items before or after store hours. This gives consumers more choices and establishes your brand as one that exceeds customer expectations. Lockers also enhance a retailer’s preparedness for any future business shutdowns.
Better Than Curbside
Repair/Replacement
Drop Off and Pickup
Increased volume, combined with potential staffing shortages, can create long wait times and lines for curbside pick-up, something automated lockers easily resolves. They allow customers to pick up the items before or after store hours. This gives consumers more choices and establishes your brand as one that exceeds customer expectations. Lockers also enhance a retailer’s preparedness for any future business shutdowns.
Better Than Curbside
10%
60%
In the early 2010s, Amazon began offering customers the option of picking up items at
picking up items at stand-alone branded automated lockers and kiosks. While they started as more of a novelty,
branded automated lockers and kiosks. While they started as more of a novelty,
of a novelty, lockers are emerging as a must-have in many retailers’ post-pandemic BOPIS strategies.
as a must-have in many retailers’ post-pandemic BOPIS strategies.
They’re simple to use for both store associates and customers, and today’s consumers see
store associates and customers, and today’s consumers see
as a value-added part of their entire shopping experience.
Step
1
Step
3
Step
2
Step
4
As BOPIS has been the talk of retail during the pandemic,
in-store (BORIS) — as see its cousin — buy online, return in-store (BORIS) — as
(BORIS) — as an emerging way to help reduce return costs. Adding lockers
lockers into the return equation is a win-win, creating a frictionless
CX and allowing consumers to conduct contactless returns.
As more consumers shop from their favorite device, retailers
automated loThis ckers can stand out.
Better Than Curbside
consumers to conduct contactless returns.
about package concierge®
Step 1
A customer’s order is received by
store associates.