The Future of Retail with Click and Collect Research

The growth of omnichannel shopping has been evident for many years. In 2019 e-commerce sales grew by 14.9% and represented over 16% of total retail sales for the year, making it one of the most attractive growth avenues. (Source Digitalcommerce360) . COVID 19 has also significantly accelerated the ecommerce and omnichannel trends and retailers everywhere are now scrambling to create a more personalized, omnichannel, shopping experience.

This creates a significant opportunity for Research and Design Consultancies to support this accelerated digitisation of retail.

In-store shopping and online shopping were traditionally seen as two different experiences but in the new digitized age, this siloing could not be any more incorrect. Many shoppers use online stores to window shop and get familiar with current collections. Inspired by social media, they often proceed to reviews and testimonials and learn more about the product before planning their purchase. When in-store, shoppers often use their mobile phones to learn more about the products they are browsing and often look for a cheaper or more convenient alternative elsewhere.

In an effort to create a link between online and in-store, a number of retailers introduced a “Click and Collect” service for their customers. Seen as the perfect blend of online and in-store experiences, the contactless digital experience allows retailers to connect with shoppers who do not wish to spend time in the store while allowing them to enjoy the immediacy of an in-store shopping experience with the ability to collect their purchases almost immediately after ordering.

In this post, we explore how leveraging Mobile Ethnography can help you understand how customers are adapting their shopping experience to new retail trends and to get a rich insight into how Covid-19 has impacted your core customer’s purchasing behaviors.

The ‘New Normal’

A study by University College London found that on average it takes us 66 days to form a new or break a habit. As most of the population was in lockdown for around 90 days, many of the newly formed behaviors have in fact become habits. (Source: The Guardian)

Despite more services and retailers reopening their doors, many shoppers are still opting for contactless deliveries and hands-free shopping. As more and more shoppers are becoming comfortable with their new online and contactless shopping habits embracing these trends is essential to ensure business continuity.

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The stressful queuing system, sanitation stations, and social distancing while essential make the in-store experience comparatively less attractive than it once was. The rationale for visiting a brick and mortar store has changed drastically. Can a trip to the store offer the convenience and personalized approach of an e-commerce website? With instant chat, next day delivery, or quick and convenient Click & Collect retail outlets without online presence simply cannot compete.

The Evolution of Click and Collect

The click and collect model has greatly evolved over the last 3 months. Formerly only offered by large retailers and catalog sellers like Argos, “Click and Collect” is transforming and changing the way we shop.

While fast tracked by the pandemic the concept always had lots of benefits. Shop and collect greatly reduces the time spent trying to visit various stores to locate a specific product and queueing at the checkouts.

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It competes with online delivery - instead of waiting for a delayed package or finding deliveries left soaking wet on the porch it offers a safe and instant alternative, while also being a viable shipping replacement for products that cannot be shipped or would be very expensive to post because of their size or weight.

Businesses are now capitalizing on the market changes, reinventing shop and collect and going beyond the in-store collection to partnering with 3rd party stores, convenience shops and even petrol stations.

In the UK, catalog seller Argos partnered with Sainsbury’s to offer a collection service from dedicated Argos collection points in local Sainsbury’s stores. With over 1428 locations across the country - most of which are local convenience stores - this partnership allowed Argos to bring their offering closer to their customers, helping Sainsbury’s increase their footfall all whilst creating a better customer journey.

Another brand leveraging click and collect for business growth is the clothing giant ‘Next’. Their online platform stocks 3rd party retailers such as River Island or All Saints, allowing the brand to reach a greater audience without making any fundamental changes to their existing business structure. Their current network of stores facilities the growing numbers of click and collect and online returns while serving as a showroom to the online customer.

Customer Focused Design Research

The movement towards omnichannel is radically changing retail. Dictated by consumer demands, it is encouraging businesses to change and re-invent, creating a more modern and customer-centric brand environment. But as brand interactions change, so does the research.

While focus groups have represented a key research methodology for many years, its many limitations such as group bias, recall constraint or logistic constraints, make it redundant for omnichannel research. (Mobile Ethnography - A Viable Alternative to Focus Groups? Learn more HERE )

Agile and mobile-first methodologies such as mobile ethnography are pioneering modern, digitized research. Leveraging the power of a smartphone, and mobile diary app installed on a respondent's phone encourages users to document their real life and digital experiences.

With video, photos, and notes respondents can document their everyday in-the-moment experiences and with Mobile Screen Recording can also share all their online activities.

The Mobile screen Recording feature is especially powerful as it captures all online and mobile interactions. From understanding what triggers and influences the shopper to follow their research and shopping journey - mobile ethnography puts you in the respondent’s shoes allowing for a more intimate insight than any other research methodology.

Asynchronous Data Collection

The “In-the-moment” and “in context” asynchronous aspect of mobile ethnography allows you, the researcher, to analyze the data and to probe with better targeted questions to elicit more in-depth insights.

As Mobile Ethnography is longitudinal research, studies typically take place over a period of 7 or more days. This allows us to observe how shoppers interact with different parts of the omnichannel while understanding more about their newly developed habits.

“If you are making your next strategic business decision - which would you prefer: what a participant tells you about past events captured in a front of a group of strangers in a 1-hour focus group or contextual, in-the-moment data recorded by respondents privately over a period of days capturing, repetitive, real-life behaviors?” Eugene Murphy, CEO of Indeemo

From Click to Collect

With a Mobile Diary Study, you can follow your shopper through every step of their decision-making process.

Why is this so powerful?

Through following a sample group of shoppers you can witness their new shopping habits and follow their journey from browsing and learning online, through ecommerce stores to the in store collection experience.

Aside from mapping your brand experience you can also get an invaluable insight into the service your competitors are offering. By understanding where you win and what aspects of your strategy need to be improved you can not only create a more customer-centric experience but boost your growth and market share.

“In projects we have supported in the past we could in real life observe customers' decision making and pinpoint exact friction points. To take an example in a recent retail study we could observe a customer search for a product online, find a nearest to the store to inspect the product, then find it out of stock and purchase online from a competitor, all while still in store.”, adds Murphy.

This observation could inspire a brand to introduce a tracked click and collect allowing customers to reserve stock or order online and collect in-store.

This example illustrates how by leveraging mobile-first research, brands can adapt and reinvent their offering to meet the ever-changing needs of the customers - and highlights just how powerful mobile diary studies can be. By capturing both real life and digital moments of the customer journey, mobile ethnography can gather data a post rationalized focus group never could.

What Does This Mean for Retailers?

Traditional brick and mortar stores are not going anywhere. There are still many customers who love the more personalized and social experience of retail. Many brands might however adapt the in-store experience to enable multichannel shopping.

Looking at the key players like Walmart experiencing a 460% increase in their daily app downloads, or Amazon reporting $75.5 billion revenue in Q1 of 2020 thanks to adapting their business and features such as Prime Video and Fire TV - both highlight just how crucial reinventing the business and leveraging new digital opportunities will be going forward.

Whether through introducing more convenient features such as Click and Collect or through taking a showroom approach and encouraging online shopping, we can certainly expect our favorite retailers to reinvent and adapt to the new challenges.