Boris Johnson is urging for more Click-and-Collect hubs in residential areas to help reduce London congestion caused by online deliveries to offices.
The UK continues to be the global hot spot for Click-and-Collect driven by consumer demand and is now part of Boris Johnson’s agenda to curb London congestion.
Online orders are increasingly being delivered to offices due to the inconvenience of missing home deliveries. The growing influx of delivery freight is causing major congestion problems and the Mayor of London warns this could rise by up to 60% over the next fifteen years.
Mr Johnson wants to expand City workers use of Click-and-Collect through a network of stores and hubs to considerably reduce congestion caused by freight into the City.
But the big question is, are retailer’s backend systems up to the task of ensuring parcels are where they should be, on time and delivery and collections logged efficiently?
Click-and-Collect is showing no signs of slowing down with consumers only getting hungrier for more creative ways to collect their goods and agenda setters like Boris Johnson, calling for expansion of Click-and-Collect services.
Our recent One Poll survey conducted by 72 Point showed that 19% of Click-and-Collect users were happy to use drone delivery if it was available, 25% comfortable using Click-and-Collect lockers at railway and tube stations and 16% willing to consider car boot delivery.
Clearly Boris Johnson’s calls for retailers and operators to work together to create an expanded Click-and-Collect network around London is a logical move likely to be extremely popular by people.
But how prepared are UK retailers to expand Click-and-Collect services successfully?
From a logistical and communication perspective, the whole chain of events from purchase through to warehouse, from delivery to collection and return is rendered by complications. Existing retail management and EPoS systems just weren’t designed to cope with the demands for omni-channel and variable forms of delivery, such as Click-and-Collect.
And it’s not just becoming a major headache for retail decision makers. The consumer is becoming increasingly frustrated with 32% having experienced long queues at collection points and a further 32% enduring long waits while store associates tried to find their parcel in the stock room, according to our research.
Our recent survey clearly points to the fact that Click-and-Collect is no longer a nice to have delivery option but an essential necessity which is causing major aggravation and concern for many retailers.
Almost three quarters (72%) of UK shoppers are already using Click-and-Collect services; half of consumers (49%) said they use this delivery method more now than they did a year ago. In fact, over a fifth (21%) of customers said they now use Click-and-Collect delivery for half their purchases.
With Click-and-Collect firmly on the agenda for consumers, congestion reduction and retailers, there’s no denying that in a mobile, anywhere, anytime customer world, Click-and-Collect distribution networks with shared retailer hubs across cities is no longer and an “if” but a “when”.
The questions remains, how many UK retailers are ready to rollout extended Click-and-Collect options at the speed required to meet demands?
For more information on Click-and-Collect services in the new retail world, download the free guide “Omni-Channel Efficiency. What are you doing?”.
We’d love to hear your thoughts about Click-and-Collect fulfilment, tweet us @cybertill.
