Retail Technologies: InstorePickUp - a service for a comfortable purchase
16.05.2016 8545

Retail Technologies: InstorePickUp - a service for a comfortable purchase

Choose the model of the right size on the manufacturer’s website and find out in which particular store this product is currently available - the most technological shoe companies provide such a convenient service for consumers today.
In shoe retail, Econika, Paolo Conte, Ralf Ringer, Ecco can boast of introducing such a service to their customers. The Detsky Mir chain of stores also has this service. It is very successfully used by jewelry manufacturer Sokolov, who managed to organize a similar service by interacting with affiliate retailers. In some cases, such as on the website of Sokolov and Ekko, the shoe manufacturer and retailer, the buyer can even reserve goods at a retail outlet for two to three days and drive up to him at a convenient time.
InstorePickUp service is one of the types of communication with the Omni-channel consumer. In order to implement this service, a company must have a certain technological base - it will need a website with a full description of goods, and a modern ERP system that allows you to take into account the movement of goods in retail in real time.
The company "Child's world" pick-up points in retail stores opened in June 2015. First of all, the service is used by retail customers who would like to receive an order in a short time, as the service provides an opportunity for a customer to receive their order in one of the network stores, just a few hours after its formation.
“The introduction of InstorePickUp service became possible as part of the company's global transition to the new SAP IT platform, which includes SAP Merchandising for Retail (management of key retail processes), SAP EWM (management of distribution centers), POS Data management (check analysis). Using a single IT platform capable of servicing up to 600 stores, we get complete analytics on the assortment and sales results of each store, which allows us to effectively manage both a single store and the business processes of the network as a whole, ”comments the head of the external department and internal communications of Detsky Mir Group Nadezhda Kiseleva.
Also, about a year ago, a service for collecting goods from a store was launched in the company. Paolo Conte.
According to the head of the Paolo Conte Internet project, Alexander Potokin, the implementation of the project, the integration between 1C, the site and other service providers, required certain changes to be made to the standard 1C-Bitrix system. “The junction between the systems has been completely rewritten. To expand the functionality of the project several groups of specialists worked together. But the result of the work was a unique, inherently, a system that allows you to minimize labor costs for processing an order, reduce lead time, solve a number of logistic problems, and thereby significantly improve the service for customers of our online store, ”he says.
In a shoe company Econika A similar service for customers has been available for about five years. The head of the Econika online store, Stanislav Korobochka, believes that the process of implementing a pick-up service for network buyers was not a problem. “We carried out the usual integration of the site with the 1C base,” he comments. - Uploading to the site takes place daily / hourly / every minute. It is difficult to clearly evaluate how the introduction of such a system affected the sales efficiency, and we first of all evaluate this as an additional service for our customers, which helps in choosing a place of purchase. First of all, we value and save client time. Due to the display of product residues on the site, the client does not have to ring up stores in search of the desired assortment, he has the necessary information in two or three clicks and can go shopping! ”

Recommendations for creating a service.

The advantages of the InstorePickUp service for the seller are obvious - this is the possibility of self-delivery of goods on the day of placing the order, more flexible inventory management, additional traffic to the store and increased customer loyalty, ”says Evgeny Schepelin, CEO of the company eSolutions LLCproviding consulting services in the field of online trading.
For companies wishing to introduce a service of picking up goods from the store, the expert gives the following recommendations:

First, the retailer must know exactly the inventory of each store in the chain. Therefore, the presence of an IT system plays an important role in mastering this technology by a retailer.

“Unfortunately, many retailers do not write off their goods in real time, but at the time of closing the shift. This generates problems with the accuracy of displaying the availability of the product / size on the site in a particular store, he notes. - There are also temporary states of the product when it is not entirely clear whether it will be purchased (for example, if the product is in the fitting room). In the case of a minimum depth of stock on the SKU, we get a high probability of OOS (Out of stock) of a situation when the ordered product is physically already sold or the last unit is defective. At any warehouse complex, such situations happen, and in this case, each store is, in fact, a warehouse, so the probability of error increases in proportion to the size of the retail network. "

Secondly, it’s worth considering the volume of orders: “If we are talking about dozens of orders per day collected in the store, there should not be any additional problems, but if the store is located in a key shopping center and the volume is much larger, this forms the need for the retailer to install additional packing areas for processing orders, the availability of special (dedicated) personnel. ”

In addition, Evgeny Schepelin points out another possible way to organize pick-up of orders for retail customers - from the warehouse of a retailer.

This process is practically no different from a regular home order. Orders are processed and packaged in stock. Then they are consolidated and transferred with sorting (depending on the type of business) to the store for delivery to the customer.

Of the advantages of this option, the expert notes: the possibility of scaling with a sharp increase in order volumes (especially during sales); better order processing (a single packaging standard) and a significantly lower number of OOS (a single inventory - the accuracy of balances on the site) / errors.

However, this system has drawbacks: a limited range (depending on the type of storage - external / own warehouse); more expensive logistics (delivery warehouse - store); a longer period of physical availability of the order to the buyer (delivery time from warehouse to store, store sorting schedule).

“Omni-channel technologies are highly dependent on the legal form of the network. Ideally, when the retail chain has a single legal entity. Other options, one way or another, have risks. Both accounting / tax and personal data risks, ”warns Evgeny Schepelin.







Choose the model of the desired size on the manufacturer’s website and find out in which store this product is currently available - such a convenient service for the consumer today ...
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