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By 2025, nearly a third of all online orders will be fulfilled by stores--a statistic that may seem easy to dismiss at first glance, but one that becomes increasingly more impactful as you dive deeper into the ship-from-store concept. High street retailers, in particular, stand to benefit greatly by adopting a ship-from-store model and offering click-and-collect.

The Benefits of Ship-from-Store

By turning your storefront(s) into shipment centers, a business is able to give online shoppers complete access to its inventory. For large retailers, something that’s out-of-stock in the warehouse may actually be on a store shelf, but failing to adopt the ship-from-store model will result in a lost sale as the consumer looks elsewhere for an online retailer who is able to ship it to them.

With the ship-from-store model, there’s no need to invest in more distribution centers. Instead, retailers are encouraged to find central locations for new storefronts--driving foot traffic and putting them in a better position to delivery quickly, and with lower transport costs, to local customers shopping online.

The key to making the ship-from-store model work comes down to a flexible logistics platform that allows businesses to live up to delivery expectations. In other words, the success of a ship-from-store model is going to come down to on-demand deliveries.

If it takes your store a day or more to move merchandise and get it to the customer, they’ve lost the instant gratification of using ship-from-store and they’ll simply find another retailer to purchase from. The question is, how do you pull that off?

The Rising Popularity of Click-and-Collect

To continue meeting changing consumer needs amidst advancing technology and a lingering pandemic, businesses need to start upgrading their logistics, and ship-from-store is just one piece of the puzzle.

The fact is, more of your customers want the opportunity to shop online and get their items quickly, with minimal time and contact. That might mean a ship-from-store option that allows them to get the item dropped at their door in a matter of hours, but it can also mean a click-and-collect system, or “store pickup” option.

During the pandemic, store pickup grew from 26.6% in 2019 to nearly 60%, according to Adobe Digital Economy Index. Recently, IMRG analysed the checkout process for a sample group of UK retailers. Of that group, 8 in 10 of the top third offered some form of store pickup or click-and-collect.

Some retailers keep it simple--allowing customers to buy online and come into the store where they can ask a clerk to hand them their items. Others are offering a fully contactless exchange where the shopper waits curbside in their car for their items to be brought to them. In either case, offering customers more delivery options is key to sustainable growth. For some retailers offering local delivery in an hour or less is helping to drive sales and win new customers.

Integrating Flexible Delivery Options

The numbers prove that consumers expect speed, but it’s not easy to pull off. The key to keeping up with these demands is having the right technology by your side. That’s why we’ve partnered with Zapiet, the most advanced store pickup and local delivery shipping tool for Shopify.

At last count, Zapiet was powering more than 10,000 merchants with modern logistic solutions, and you’re only steps away from integrating it into your store. With Zapiet, you’ll convert more shoppers into happy customers by offering store pickup, same-day, and instant-delivery.

Are you ready to learn how Zapiet and Ryde can help your business keep up with consumer demands and keep customers happy? Getting started with this integration is easy, you just need to find Zapiet in the Shopify app store and create your Ryde account.

Book a chat with Mike if you need help getting started or to find out more about Ryde and how we can help you grow your business.