Today’s customers prioritise convenience and speed when it comes to shopping. A shopping model that has been gaining popularity due to the convenience factor and post-COVID due to social distancing and health and safety concerns is BOPIS.
BOPIS stands for “Buy Online, Pickup in Store”. It is an omnichannel retail strategy that involves customers placing an order for a product on the website of a brand and collecting the product from the brand’s physical store. Once a customer’s order is ready, the store sends him an email or an SMS about the same. He is then asked to choose a time slot to pick up his order from his nearest outlet. If the product is not available at that outlet, the customer can wait until it comes back in stock, or choose to pick it up from a different outlet.
How You Can Improve Your BOPIS Experience
Have A Landing Page For BOPIS Products
Your brand’s website and mobile app form the core of your BOPIS experience. They are the first thing that customers see and are the first point of interaction for customers with your brand. You have to make sure to set up your app and website for your success.
You can create a landing page on your app/website to let your customers know that you are offering BOPIS. Make sure that products can be found easily on the page – allow users to see the list of products available at their nearest outlet. Update your inventory on the site in real time – if your customers visit your site to find an “out of stock” message on it, they will switch to your competitor’s site. Use the page to educate users about BOPIS and how they can place orders on your website/app.
Assign And Train A Team To Manage BOPIS Sales
Stores always only train their employees in handling in-store purchases and do not consider new services like BOPIS. Customers do not like to wait to pick up their purchased products or to make additional in-store purchases. You should avoid assigning employees handling instore sales to handle BOPIS sales as it will delay the process or cause errors. This will result in disgruntled customers who will abandon your brand for your competitor.
Designate separate staff and train them to handle the BOPIS processes. Make sure they can verify BOPIS customers’ identities, keep their purchased products ready to hand over to them when they arrive and assist them in making additional in-store purchases. Train your staff to be able to explain the BOPIS process to your new customers.
Cross-Sell Instore Products
Providing customers with a personalised shopping experience is key to increasing their loyalty to your brand. Studies have shown that most BOPIS customers purchase additional products when they visit stores to pick up their online orders. You can take advantage of this impulse buying behaviour to increase your in-store sales. Once your customers successfully place their online order, send them an email with recommendations for related in-store products and offer them discount coupons to purchase the products on the day of pickup.
Have a dedicated area to display items related to your BOPIS products to make it easy for your customers to view and purchase them. Train your BOPIS staff to be able to assist your customers with purchasing in-store items and to add in-store items to BOPIS orders before processing them.
Put Up Clear Signages
Once you have launched your BOPIS service, you have to make sure your customers know about it. Putting up signages both inside and outside your store is the easiest way to do it. Have signages at the entrance of your store to direct your customers to your BOPIS location once they arrive.
Customers choose BOPIS for the speed. Signages can help your customers inside the BOPIS location to identify and pick up their orders quickly instead of waiting in long lines with in-store customers. When the pickup and purchase processes are faster, customer satisfaction and retention rates are higher.
Gather Customer Feedback To Improve Their Experience
Once a customer picks up their order, send them an email confirming their order and thanking them for shopping with you, and ask for their feedback on your product and on the process of order placement and pickup. This will help you to know the challenges they have faced during the processes and to improve your website and product accordingly. The easiest and the most popular ways to collect customer feedback are by sending them a detailed questionnaire or a short poll on your app, website, or customers’ email addresses. You can also use social listening to know what your customers are saying about your brand and product on social media and incorporate their feedback to improve their experience.
