Intermarché and Asda roll out Click and Collect lockers

Coincidentally Asda and Intermarché chose the same day to announce the extension of their click and collect services.

Both have experimented with lockers and both are now going to roll them out.

The lockers are temperature controlled, so it should be possible to collect ambient, chilled and frozen goods from them.

Both will be expanded beyond the bounds of their parent company stores. Intermarché says it will open some at IKEA stores, Asda is rather vague about it. But there is obvious scope in a whole variety of high footfall locations, such as transport hubs.

Why?

Click and collect is a service to customers. The major problem with any form of home shopping is delivery and Click and Collect is one way to overcome that drawback – in fact in Mintel’s recent online grocery report, we found that 20% of grocery buyers said that having to wait for delivery is a major disadvantage in shopping online. In Mintel’s forthcoming report on all e-commerce we found that almost half of online buyers (all online buyers, not just grocery) liked to use Click and Collect in order to avoid delivery charges.

Convenience and speed

Convenience is one of the most important drivers in retailing, particularly grocery retailing and one of the keys to modern retailing, especially food retailing, is to make it as easy as possible to buy from you. For many people buying online is the most convenient way of shopping and that is why so many of the majors have developed their online offer. Having done that, click and collect is a logical step.

In-store or lockers

Click and Collect is all very well, but where should customers collect from? The obvious answer is – wherever and whenever it suits them. And that is the logic behind setting up the lockers.

But it is not quite as simple as that. There is plenty of evidence that people who shop online spend less per person. Mintel’s own consumer research shows that 18% say they do all or most of their food shopping online and yet online accounts for under 4.5% of food retailers sales. So food retailers have a vested interest in persuading customers into the store. That is the attraction of the Drive thru services in France. Drive is by far the most common form of online service used in France, accounting for about 80% of online grocery sales. (Drive means the people can collect their goods from the store). Intermarché has been in the lead in developing home delivery.

Where next?

Asda is on record in saying that it wants to have 1,000 click and collect points by 2018. Intermarché has no specific stated objective, but it has over 1,800 stores in France and it is talking of putting lockers adjacent to other retailers as well.

Click and Collect is all about good service and in a food retailing environment when any small advantage can be critical it is hardly surprising that these two are developing click and collect as fast as possible.

So it should be no surprise that Asda and Intermarché are developing their offer.

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