Today’s discerning consumers distinguish less and less between the digital and physical stores, hence the ubiquitous term omnichannel. Traditional brick and mortar locations must continue to evolve; accommodating tech savvy consumers by providing the conveniences they demand while facilitating in-store experiences for engagement—all indications point to Buy Online Pickup In Store (BOPIS) as the answer.
Past Consumer Trends Studies have shown nearly 80 percent of shoppers use Buy Online Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) and half are willing to remain loyal to brands who offer it. So, part of the retail revolution must accommodate BOPIS, and that includes investing in locker solutions that help deliver on fulfillment. With that, however, retailers need to ensure they are protecting their investments for the changing marketplace; balancing how they deliver a cohesive and modern shopping experience, while also driving revenue in new ways.
A large part of the BOPIS strategy is ensuring order fulfillment is a seamless overall experience – enter automated retail locker systems. So, how do retailers balance that investment and ensure it stands the test of time? By utilizing automated lockers to do more jobs and solve more problems!
Taking Smart Retail Locker Solutions Beyond BOPIS
Package Concierge® has developed our top ten list of alternate use cases for automated locker systems in order to help retailers maximize their investment in today’s environment:
- BOPIS: Use-case #1 for smart retail lockers has always been buy online pickup in store (BOPIS); a business imperative for today’s omnichannel retailers. Streamlining the customer pickup process with automated locker systems has been proven to increase satisfaction and often leads to additional in-store purchases while the customer is retrieving their order.
- BORIS: Offering a frictionless return mechanism is just as important as a smooth pickup process for customer satisfaction. Considering that on average 12.9 percent of all purchases are returned, automated retail lockers can play an important role in streamlining this often-cumbersome process.
- Store-to-store: The use of automated lockers for store-to-store transfers can speed up the overall process. This relieves pressure from the service desk and allows employees to provide more value-added customer activities while still providing a record of when the transfer took place.
- Courier Pickup/Delivery: Orders for entire routes can easily be placed in an automated locker system for each of the designated couriers (private delivery agent) to retrieve. Utilization of an outdoor locker further enhances the speed at which couriers can retrieve and then deliver items to customers without having to interrupt the normal in-store activity.
- Repair Drop-off/Pick-up: The 24/7 nature of automated retail lockers allow customers to drop-off/pick-up items for repair at their convenience, which is typically outside normal business hours. For example, a customer can drop off their shoes for repair in the locker while on their way to work and then pick them back up on their way home.
- Device Management: As stores are becoming increasingly more digital, it means more devices for employee to use and employers to manage. Automated locker systems can be utilized for employee device check-out, keeping a record and still photo from all transactions which increase device management security.
- B2B: Like Store-to-Store transfers that are within the retailer’s own network, B2B transfers facilitate the exchanges of goods between businesses by improving efficiency for both users. For instance, an automotive parts supplier that needs to send parts to various repair stations throughout the day could have the orders available for those stations, or a courier, to pickup from an automated locker system.
- Ship to Store: BOPIS is the gold standard for customer orders by fulfilling directly from store inventory; but when that’s not available, shipping from the distribution center to the store is the next best thing. Automated lockers can accommodate individual customer orders or batched orders that are broken down at the store level. Smart lockers can also accommodate ship to store orders received via a closed distribution network or common carrier deliveries.
- Reserve and Collect: There are often times when a customer wants to ensure an item is available at the store before they arrive, which allows the customer the opportunity to inspect it before purchasing the item. This is especially common in the clothing industry where a customer has a specific color and size of garment reserved so they know it is available to try on when they arrive.
- Buy Online Pickup Local (BOPUL) a.k.a. Pickup Dropoff (PUDO) a.k.a. Open Access Ship Point: Whatever you call it, it’s an increasingly popular use-case being considered. Retailers install an open-access ship point locker system at their location which consumers can then use to ship to/from any retailer/brand, listing the locker as their ship-to address. For the consumer it offers both convenience and security. Imagine having vacation supplies shipped to a smart locker location at your vacation destination. For the retailer it drives foot traffic to your store. Win/win.
While it is imperative for retailers to continue to innovate to keep up with the evolving demands of consumers, it is also critical that they look ahead to ensure they are future proofing their investments. The myriad of use-cases an automated retail locker system can support proves its power and promise extends far beyond BOPIS.
Tips to Help Retailers Future-Proof Their Investment
But what happens if your product mix changes in the future, or when BOPIS becomes so popular at your location that your average order increases in size? Not to worry! The Package Concierge® retail locker system is built to adjust with your changing needs.
By selecting our patent-pending configurable locker solution, you can adjust the compartment sizes within your retail locker system to fit your individual needs. To see this in action, take a look at this video.
Package Concierge® provides a unique opportunity to reduce friction while making it easy to interface with your customers. In the new retail landscape, successful operations will have to be omnichannel retailers that can capture dollars online, in the store, or anywhere they can connect with their customers.
Our customers are rushing to their Package Concierge® system, and we can have them rushing to your business, too. Explore the possibilities of expanding what you do while minimizing labor and increasing customer contact. Get in touch and we can make a plan for the next step in your evolution.
