While many retailers jumped on offering buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) during the COVID-19 pandemic, the service continues to provide an extra layer of customer service and a way for retailers to differentiate.
BOPIS also brings customers through your doors, allowing them to see what else your operation offers, creating opportunities for cross-selling and opening up the doors for additional in-person purchases and relationship building through in-person interactions. With BOPIS, customers can often pick up products the same day and they gain the confidence that the item they want is available before they travel to the store.
For retailers, BOPIS is more than a fulfillment option—it’s an omnichannel strategy that connects digital and physical shopping experiences. It helps retailers increase revenue, lower costs, leverage store assets and provide the convenience customers increasingly expect.
At Paul’s Ace Hardware, with 11 locations in Arizona, BOPIS serves as another option to get product to customers quickly and seamlessly. With competition like Amazon, The Home Depot, Lowe’s and Costco offering additional and faster ways to get product in customers’ hands, Paul’s Ace Hardware president Julie Buchkowski says BOPIS allows her operation to better compete and also meet customers where, when and how they shop.
“We need to keep up or we will start losing <a href="https://bitcomme.com/crm-features-your-business-cant-function-without/” title=”CRM Features Your Business Can't Function Without”>business,” Buchkowski says. “I don’t think of BOPIS as differentiation anymore. I think many of our customers are expecting these services or they will shop somewhere else if we don’t offer them.”
Adding BOPIS did not require any new hires, just simple training. BOPIS orders are easy to train on and take less time to fill than walking a customer through a complex project in the store, Buchkowski says. In the pursuit of meeting customers where and how they want to shop, Buchkowski also leans into delivery. The operation has a fleet of delivery trucks to serve all of the stores, has added DoorDash, Instacart, Uber Eats and Bungii and utilizes store associates’ in their personal vehicles to make sure they are getting deliveries completed quickly.
“Our customers love BOPIS and our delivery options,” Buchkowski says. “Both are quick and easy ways to find the specific products they know they want. I think it is critical to adapt BOPIS and delivery to retain your current customers who want to shop with you and are looking for an online opportunity to do so. Adding these services takes a little training and space in the store to stage orders and the return on that investment is worth it.”
