Oct200916
Posted by: Mark Grondin In: eCommerce Best Practices
A very interesting news story broke recently… at least it was very interesting for someone like me who spends a lot of his day thinking about in-store pickup. It was announced that Amazon launched a same-day delivery service. The idea, as explained on Amazon.com, is fairly simple:
“When you choose Local Express Delivery, items are delivered on same day you place your order. Qualifying orders must be placed before the deadline displayed on the product detail page and shipped to an eligible address. Item eligibility is indicated on the product detail page and during checkout. If the order is placed after the deadline, your order will be delivered the next business day. If this shipping option doesn’t appear, the order isn’t eligible.”
You can also see an analysis of this in Internet Retailer:
“The move puts Amazon in more direct competition with bricks-and-mortar stores, says Sucharita Mulpuru, an e-commerce analyst at research and consulting firm Forrester Research Inc. “When you look at why people choose not to purchase something online, even if they research it online, the number one reason is because they want something immediately,” says Mulpuru says. “This solves that problem.”
Amazon excelled in online selling for a decade because traditional retailers were simply not good at it. But about 1-2 years ago that all changed. Multi-channel retailers figured out how to leverage their network of locations to the advantage of their online program – hence the birth of in-store pickup. With this announcement today, I believe Amazon is admitting that the instant gratification now being provided by in-store pickup programs, like those at Sears and Best Buy, plays large in the future of eCommerce. The problem for Amazon in this scenario is that they can only accomplish same-day delivery where they have nearby locations. In other words, they would have to build a complete network of retail POPs in order to really compete on this level.
Later in the IR article, Paula Rosenblum of Retail Systems Research, expresses doubt that other retailers would try to match Amazon’s service because “nobody has the size and scale to do it.”
With this, Ms. Rosenblum, I must respectfully disagree. (And this is where I will enter my shameless plug for Shopatron.)
Over the past couple years, Shopatron has been enabling branded manufacturers (without a single retail location) to provide instant gratification to their customers. This is accomplished with our in-store pickup service. A customer can go to the brand’s website, select and order their items, then choose to pick those items up at a retailer near their home or office. By leveraging their existing retail partners, the brand can provide the instant gratification customers are looking for. And those retailers are eager to help, because it drives paying customers into their store.
With a large percentage of online commerce going through their system, Amazon is still the 500-pound Gorilla in the eCommerce room, and probably will be for a long time. Where Amazon goes, others must follow. They set the expectations for every eCommerce experience, much like Wal-Mart and Target (like it or not) set expectations offline. If Amazon has same-day delivery, shoppers will start looking for it everywhere.
Prepare yourself for this new “requirement”.
