‘In-store pickup demand surges ahead of Christmas’

As Christmas nears shoppers are turning to in-store pickup to beat the Christmas rush, stated a recent report

As revealed in the “2022 Global Digital Shopping Playbook: UK Edition,” a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration, only 10.4 per cent of shoppers reported collecting their last online order in-store, below the 13.7 per cent average and the lowest of any of the six countries surveyed.

But this holiday season, at least one retailer is experiencing a surge in demand for the service. The grocery store Morrisons recently added more than 150,000 click-and-collect slots at its stores across the UK.

Although PYMNTS’ data shows that Brits have a lower preference for in-store collection than elsewhere, it also reveals that they are the most likely to order online for home delivery. In fact, UK shoppers’ preference for at-home delivery is 10 per cent higher than average, with grocery shopping top of the list.

One 2022 consumer survey found that 60 per cent of British shoppers buy at least some of their groceries online, with 16 per cent ordering all or most of them via the internet.

But in terms of in-store collection, the UK still has a long way to go to catch up with the 25 per cent of shoppers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) who picked up their most recent eCommerce purchase in-store, for example.

But despite that gap highlighted in PYMNTS’ research, this Christmas gives the UK a chance to catch up, as the Morrisons case shows.

Away from groceries, click-and-collect has an additional appeal for gift shoppers at a time of year when mail services are stretched. In 2022, the seasonal strain has been worsened by a series of postal worker strikes that have caused Royal Mail to bring its final posting dates for Christmas forward by about a week.