Click and Collect gains more followers

By Meng Jing (China Daily) Updated: 2014-06-21 07:17

As a matter of fact, many companies in China have already launched click and collect services. For example, Amazon China has recently announced that it has increased its pickup points in Shanghai from less than 100 in 2013 to more than 300 now.

Brian Hui, vice-president of Amazon China, told China Daily in a recent interview that the e-commerce giant is planning to expand its Click and Collect services from Shanghai to other cities in China.

The service has been jointly launched by Amazon China and Family Mart, a Shanghai-based convenience store chain operator. The cooperation not only helps Amazon China to improve its services by offering an alternative delivery option but also helps Family Mart to boost the number of visitors.

According to Amazon China, more than 50,000 packages ordered online have been picked up by customers themselves through the pickup points in Shanghai. The company said that the flexibility to pick up purchases whenever they are available is the main reason why online shoppers are choosing Click and Collect.

Apart from Amazon China, Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd's Tmall business-to-customer platform launched the service back in 2012. Leading consumer electronics retailer Suning Commerce Group Co is also capitalizing on the natural synergies of its multi-channel sales options.

In addition to collection of purchases, online shoppers can return or exchange goods and drop off or pick up their electronics for maintenance at Suning chain stores across China.

According to Epsilon, Click and Collect is quite popular in developed countries such as the United Kingdom. About 40 percent of consumers in the UK prefer to go to the store to pick up their purchases because the delivery options are not in the best interest of buyers.

Low said that Click and Collect is being driven by e-commerce companies in China. Most of them consider Click and Collect an alternative delivery choice as they already offer free shipping to offset the fierce competition in China's e-commerce sector. Offline stores must take the initiative to propel Click and Collect with customers, said Low from Epsilon.

"Click and Collect requires good inventory management skills. Managing business inventories for an e-commerce site requires a very good management system. You need to know exactly when you have stocks and when you don't have stocks. You need to coordinate with online marketplaces. But right now the exact coordination is not that strong," she said.