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Click and collect: The evolving reality in the ecommerce space

The line between e-commerce and in-person shopping is fading as click and collect goes mainstream

February 5, 2024
 ·  0 minutes

As click and collect becomes entrenched as a significant retail service, the physical distance between cardholder and store continues to diminish. More and more, shoppers are willing to buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS), sometimes preferring to scroll their phones and purchase online while physically in the store.

The consumer benefits of online shopping with the option of in-store pickup are clear:

  1. It allows customers to browse and purchase products from their homes, avoiding the hassles of long checkout lines and crowded stores.

  2. It saves them money on shipping costs, making it a cost-effective choice.

  3. With faster access to their purchases, consumers can enjoy instant gratification without waiting for deliveries.

More and more, enterprise companies like Starbucks and Walmart are experiencing massive changes in their distribution models due to the growth of BOPIS. Starbucks, which built its brand and business on being the “third place,” now has over two-thirds of its orders come through its mobile app, drive-thru, and delivery. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 90% of new Starbucks locations are being built with drive-thrus for quick pickup. Half of these locations have technology that allows customers to order through tablets operated by workers in drive-thru lines. Additionally, Walmart’s chief financial officer, John David Rainey, said the retailer handled more than 200 million curbside pickup orders in 2022.

A paradigm shift in payments

For years, cardholder’s banks have categorized transactions based on whether the purchase happened in-store or online. Historically, card networks have designated BOPIS as an online transaction, even though goods are ultimately acquired in person.

With in-person pickup, the customer's presence during the verification process lessens the risk of fraud. Therefore, Adyen believes the payment space needs a new designation to reflect the gray area between in-store and online purchases. It’s time to introduce “cardholder present” indicators as part of online transactions to keep pace with the increasingly real time, digital, and mobile ways that people shop.

Entering the mainstream

As payments evolve and become more digital, so too are the payment players. In particular, some card networks – like Mastercard – are exploring the rise of "click and collect" and its opportunities as a middle ground between ecommerce and in-store purchases.

“Digital experiences like click and collect are not only enhancing opportunities for unified commerce, but also giving merchants choices of when, where, and how to interact with their shoppers,” said Jennifer Marriner, executive vice president, Acceptance Solutions at Mastercard.

Maximize your benefits

We designed our unified financial technology platform to empower your business to make the most of these changes. With flexible technology and robust in-house infrastructure, you can confidently navigate the complexities of payment networks, reduce operational costs, and focus on delivering exceptional products and services to your customers. If you’re currently using an omnichannel approach, getting the benefits of these new savings will be more challenging.

Flowchart showing the payment process including POS/Commerce system, issuer, card scheme, Adyen platform, and business bank account.

Power your marketing with payments data

Adyen’s unified platform lets you connect your online and offline shopping channels. By leveraging your existing brick-and-mortar stores as pickup locations, you save on delivery costs and expand your customer reach. This hybrid model enhances customer satisfaction and drives foot traffic, potentially leading to additional in-store purchases.

Click and collect is here to stay. Consumers increasingly expect it as an offering, and the payment networks understand this. Don’t let your business fall behind the pack. Transition to unified commerce today and make your savings journey as smooth as possible.

*Analysis includes the total additional revenue that would be generated, by companies across the US analyzed in the survey which are not using unified commerce tools, if they were to use it and had the revenue growth uplift implied by the survey results.

The calculation utilizes the number of retail businesses in the US which do not use each technologies analyzed (which have a positive association with revenue growth), and the potential revenue uplift calculated using revenue growth rates and data on the average revenue for retail businesses in the US.

All included stats are cited from Adyen's 2023 Retail Report.

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