Benefits of BOPIS and Implementation Considerations

The shopping world has permanently changed. Not very long ago, it seemed like the entire world was out shopping from Thanksgiving throughout the holidays with ‘Black Friday’ and the day before a specific holiday being absolute chaos. With extremely crowded stores, malls, and shopping centers, a fair amount of patience was required from shoppers circling the parking lot pursuing the elusive open space or waiting in seemingly endless checkout lines. Granted, some consumers eagerly anticipate the holiday shopping season, love the associated mayhem, and truly enjoy the ‘thrill of the hunt’ for the perfect gifts. But this is not the case for everyone—especially with our progressively time-strapped lives and heightened awareness of safety concerns.

One of the major selling points of the online experience is that in many cases shoppers can get their items within a two-day delivery timeframe—often for free or nominal shipping cost. This shift in the shopping experience has forced typical store retailers to change their strategy for attracting customers. They are compelled to find new ways to get customers into their stores or risk losing a large segment of their sales. BOPIS is one strategy to reduce this gap with online retailers. BOPIS elevates the retailer above other competitors that do not offer the service. In fact, according to one study, 37% of shoppers regularly use this service, with 9% using BOPIS every day.

With the expected quick turnaround for purchases, customers increasingly have an “I want it now” mindset when it comes to shopping. A retailer’s BOPIS process helps a customer achieve that goal and more: online reservations, quicker pickups, product validation, and easier returns.

Not only does BOPIS provide customer satisfaction (when executed well), but it also benefits the retailer in multiple ways that become the main drivers for pursuing and perfecting BOPIS capabilities. Most of these outcomes have to do with top line revenue impacts: increased online orders, incremental in-store traffic, additional marketing avenues, and compelling the retailer to improve their inventory accuracy processes and systems.

It would be remiss to discuss the benefits of implementing or enhancing BOPIS capabilities without at least mentioning some of the considerations and roadblocks.

The first concern that always comes to mind is customer satisfaction. There is a bit of unrest in having faith that the items selected by the store associate fulfilling the order will meet a customer’s expectations. This concern is most typically associated with the grocery sector, where selection of perishable items is the responsibility of the order picker—as opposed to a typical manufactured item. This concern can be rebuked if the retailer is focused on customer satisfaction through the BOPIS process, and the company ensures store associates are trained and incentivized to follow the same mindset.

One approach would be to compel the associates to pick the items that they would feel comfortable buying themselves, as well as ensuring customer expectations are met or exceeded through follow-up satisfaction surveys—then adjusting the process or re-training associates, as needed. Having a ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ policy that is well-advertised and appropriately compensated (in the case of errors) is another way to ensure customer acceptance and use.

Although store associates are often on tight time frames to pick orders, they also need to remember the priority of overall customer service. If a customer in the store needs assistance unrelated to the associate’s BOPIS order, then the associate needs to be trained to pause their current pick task and help the in-store customer. For larger stores with many associates, it may be possible to separate responsibilities, but there will always be scenarios that must be addressed in training where in-store customers approach the pickers.

Because the roles and responsibilities of the entire store staff are typically disrupted a fair amount with the introduction or expansion of BOPIS, retailers also need to think through and adjust key performance indicators (KPIs) of both the overall store as well as individual roles within the store. The question of ‘who gets credit’ for BOPIS orders is a common issue—especially when returns are factored in. Since BOPIS orders do require store associate involvement, most retailers with BOPIS capabilities in place attribute the revenue to the store fulfilling the order.

When the customer comes into the store to pick up their order, they are typically expecting efficiency (hence a primary reason for using BOPIS); therefore, the store associate needs to know exactly where the picked order is located. This demands not only dedicated space for storing the picked items, but also a simple methodology for locating customer orders, as well as adequate staging or packaging for easy transfer to the customer. Granted, in smaller stores, dedicating a section of the back room can be challenging, and it may be necessary to allocate precious sales floor space for this capability, which then raises questions around the ROI of BOPIS vs. selling space.

There is also the issue of handling BOPIS orders that may not get picked up immediately, such as communications to the customer if an order remains in the store after a certain time period (i.e., not picked up within three days, as expected). This again, goes back to roles and responsibilities of the store staff—as well as systemic integration—to determine how the customer is contacted (automatically by a system email, or a phone call from a store associate). This may be a blend, depending on the brand’s customer service value proposition (i.e., highly personalized/consultative vs. big box/self-service environments).

Further, an efficient BOPIS process requires several customer touchpoints where emails are sent to the customer with updates (e.g. order confirmation, order ready for pickup, order picked up, order canceled, order reminders, order auto-canceled, item canceled). Depending on the existing systems, there may be a separate order management application required to handle all the email triggers and content.

In a related sense, other retail legacy systems may have to be updated or integrated to handle the new BOPIS order process, which needs to flow from the website to the order management system to the point of sale (POS) system—all while integrating to systems supporting inventory management. Unless the retailer has already implemented some ship-to-store orders, their POS system may not be configured to handle incoming customer orders.

Another related concern is regarding inventory tracking. Oftentimes, different systems are not fully integrated with real-time inventory updates. This goes back to the inventory accuracy benefit mentioned earlier and is the biggest design element for BOPIS due to the multiple systems involved in triggering inventory updates throughout the process. Additionally, store associates must be fully trained, understand, and execute the proper procedures to trigger the different types of inventory updates (e.g. pick, sort, pickup, and manual adjustments).

A key BOPIS implementation consideration is the appropriate assortment to be made available. Not every item in a retailer’s in-store assortment is suitable for this process. Most retailers do not have their full assortment available for BOPIS. The typical cadence is to start off implementing 20% or less of the available SKUs and then gradually build the BOPIS-eligible inventory over time as the process is honed. Further, retailers may need to define safety stock differently for the BOPIS assortment to ensure these items do not go out of stock—a design element heavily dependent on the retailer’s replenishment capabilities. Typically, a retailer will start with an assortment of BOPIS items that are stocked in all store locations, are early in the item lifecycle (not marked down or discounted), and are not seasonal items. Over time, the retailer may expand their BOPIS assortment to include a wider range of items and scenarios, but initially, it is better to have a common assortment and process across all BOPIS items in all stores.

Of course, there must be consistency across the customer’s BOPIS order and in-store pricing—including any current promotions. This is tightly related to the systemic integration concerns mentioned, but also has touchpoints to marketing. In the occasions where prices are not consistent, store associates must be aware of any discrepancies and be empowered to make appropriate adjustments, such as issuing a credit or other reparation to the customer (in cases where the online price is higher).

There is also a level of concern about fraud. Like ‘traditional’ online orders that are shipped to a customer, there should be a systemic process in place to perform fraud checks (e.g. match credit card with shipping addresses, perform email blacklist checks). In addition to the initial fraud checks, retailers need to have deliberate processes in place to identify the customer at pickup, such as requiring photo identification, order confirmation, and/or credit card used in the transaction. Communicating these requirements to the customer during the ordering and confirmation phases of the process will mitigate uncomfortable situations at the store.

As with most initiatives, proper planning, communication, and training during the BOPIS implementation can address many of these concerns. As such, one of the best ways to prevent in-store process hiccups is to ensure a well-designed order management process and fully trained staff are in place. Further, a change management program will greatly improve store associate understanding and adoption of new BOPIS-related procedures. Because store staff responsibilities will very likely be altered, change management activities not only help inform and educate store associates about the upcoming changes, but also provides the chance to voice concerns about the new process that may need to be addressed before it can work efficiently.