Implementing BOPIS to Give Modern Consumers a More Convenient Buying Experience
When it comes to online retail, customer convenience comes first. After all, you’re giving your shoppers the ability to buy from the convenience of anywhere, along with all the convenient resources they need to learn about their interests and make an informed decision. The very nature of your digital storefront—a place where shoppers can skip the trip to your store—puts customer convenience first.
As modern shoppers grow increasingly accustomed to this kind of retail convenience, more and more are expecting retailers in every industry to offer a relatively new kind of convenience—buy online, pick up in-store, or BOPIS. As you continue to put customer convenience first, BOPIS can unlock a new world of retail opportunities and give your shoppers an experience they can’t get at every dealership.
This article will give you the insights, information and best practices to help you implement BOPIS at your dealership, including the following helpful topics:
- What is BOPIS?
- BOPIS Benefits for Dealers
- BOPIS Benefits for Customers
- Ensuring a User-Friendly Online Platform
- Optimizing Real-Time Inventory Management
- Practice Clear Communication with Customers
- Ensure Efficient Order Fulfillment
- Deliver Customer Notifications
- Designate a Dealership Pick-Up Area
- Provide Flexible Payment Options
- Offer Helpful Customer Support
- Collect Feedback
What is BOPIS?
BOPIS is a retail strategy that allows shoppers to place orders for products online, through your dealership’s website, and pick up their purchases at your physical store location, at their convenience. BOPIS bridges the gap between online and offline channels, catering to the evolving expectations of modern consumers who value a cohesive experience across all channels.
This concept has gained immense popularity in recent years across retail sectors—from big box stores to grocery stores, and even dealerships—due to its advantages for both shoppers and retailers.
In fact, BOPIS has become so popular in recent years that as much as 40% of consumers consider it to be the most important aspect of the retail shopping experience, according to a report by iVend Retail.
Consumers utilize BOPIS for a variety of reasons, but the most common include avoiding shipping charges, saving time by not having to shop in-store and the ability to pick up a product soon after purchase, according to the same report.
Maybe most importantly, BOPIS is not just a passing trend. It’s an integral part of the modern retail experience and it’s here to stay. In fact, more than 81% of internet users worldwide order items online to pick up in-store, according to Insider Intelligence—that’s up 30% from the previous year.
Why is BOPIS important?
BOPIS has several benefits for both the dealer and the consumer. It’s a rare win-win in the retail industry that shouldn’t be ignored by dealers who want to give their shoppers more options, while also expanding potential retail and profit opportunities.
BOPIS Benefits for Dealers
More Retail Opportunities
First and foremost, BOPIS allows your dealership to sell your parts, gear, products and accessories online, opening up a new world of retail possibilities. What’s better, you can do this without having to implement a sophisticated shipping operation or worrying about the logistics of delivering a product to a consumer.
If you’re trying to grow your business, BOPIS offers a way to expand your retail audience beyond the boundaries of your physical store location and the immediate geographical locale surrounding your dealership.
BOPIS also gives your dealership a distinct competitive advantage—a key difference maker that shoppers will want to utilize, even if it means driving past other dealerships to pick up their new purchases. As you keep up with current retail trends, customers will follow.
On top of all these advantages, BOPIS customers are more inclined to make additional purchases when they visit your store for pickup, leading to increased sales. In fact, 47% of online shoppers always or often buy more products when picking up their BOPIS orders, according to Fit Small Business. And, 17% say they sometimes make additional purchases when picking up purchases in-store.
Increased Dealership Freedom
As you give your shoppers the option to pick up their purchases in-store, BOPIS gives your dealership more freedom to choose the products you want to sell online. Instead of limiting your offerings to what can fit on your shelf or the most popular parts and products, you can now select aftermarket and private catalog products at a product level and choose what you want to make available to shoppers for in-store pickup only.
This opens up more retailing possibilities for your dealership to sell even more products online and further expands your potential audience. Best of all, with BOPIS, you can choose exactly what you want to ship and what you want to require customers to pick up in store, giving you more control over your sales.
You can make your entire store in-store pickup only, or you can set a sub-selection of products you want to have as in-store pickup and have a hybrid shipping and pickup operation. It’s completely up to you.
If you’re a Dealer Spike customer enrolled in our Ecommerce platform, you can use the In-Store Pickup feature to easily mark which inventory listings are eligible for in-store pickup and streamline the pickup process for your customers. Click here to learn how.
Save Time & Free up Resources
Instead of answering phone call after phone call about product availability and price, with BOPIS, your shoppers can find all the information they need online. Your dealership may even choose to include instructions on your voicemail for shoppers to visit your website to make a purchase and arrange for in-store pickup.
When shoppers click on a product listing, they can see whether the product is eligible for in-store pickup and how soon it will be available. All of this can be done without any involvement from you or your sales team.
Save on Shipping Costs
Saving on shipping is the number one driver for consumers to use BOPIS, but the benefits aren’t exclusive to consumers. BOPIS saves your dealership time, money and hassle of packaging up parts, products and accessories before shipping them out to consumers. There’s no dealing with labels, shipping liability, shipping returns, etc. All the work of delivering the product is taken care of by the customer.
BOPIS Benefits for Shoppers
More Convenience
Modern shoppers value convenience. Remember, almost 45% of consumers utilize BOPIS to save time by not having to shop in-store and almost 39% of consumers utilize BOPIS to be able to pick up their online purchase quickly, even the same day, according to iVend Retail.
By offering a BOPIS service, your dealership can provide potential customers with the flexibility to shop for parts and products that you offer from the comfort of their homes or on-the-go. It’s modern shopping made available to your audience.
Expands Shopping Hours
BOPIS gives your shoppers the ability to buy from your dealership outside of business hours and pick up in-store at their convenience. This eliminates the need for time-consuming in-store visits and opens up more opportunities for more consumers to shop for your offerings.
By way of example, many shoppers who work standard 9-5 hours will find it difficult to visit your store during the week. BOPIS gives your shoppers the option to make a purchase and pick up in store without having to worry that the part of product will sell out before they can visit your dealership.
The fear of missing out is a real retail driver. Consumers appreciate dealerships that are upfront with them about product availability and give them the option to secure a purchase now and pick up on their own time.
Eliminates Frustration
There’s nothing worse than making a special trip to a store, only to find out that a needed part or product is sold out, or worse, that it was never there in the first place. BOPIS eliminates this kind of frustration by giving shoppers the ability to browse your available product inventory online.
Rather than having to make a special trip to your dealership, the shopper can see exactly what’s in stock, make a purchase and pick up the product when they’re ready. BOPIS also makes finding products much easier, as shoppers can simply plug in the model and serial number to see right away if the part or product is in stock.
Faster Fulfillment
BOPIS isn’t just a convenient way to find products online. Once purchased, products may be available for pick up immediately or within hours—a much faster alternative than waiting for the slow speed of shipping.
In addition to this rapid turnaround time, the shopper can receive status updates following a purchase via email, along with instructions on where and how to collect the product at your store. On top of all these conveniences, BOPIS reduces shipping costs for your customers, the number one driver for consumers to use BOPIS.
BOPIS Best Practices
Simply offering BOPIS doesn’t automatically set your dealership apart from your competition or in the minds of consumers. You have to ensure that you take the right steps to implement BOPIS in ways that consumers want to use. Consider the following BOPIS best practices.
Ensure a User-Friendly Online Platform
The entire idea behind BOPIS is to make life easier and more convenient for your shoppers. If your BOPIS system is difficult to understand or poorly implemented on your site, you’ve already defeated the primary purpose of BOPIS and one of the most compelling reasons consumers will come to your digital storefront.
As you implement BOPIS on your website, ensure that your online platform is easy to navigate, with clear product information, pricing and an intuitive checkout process. Give shoppers clear indications and calls to action for what to do next, and hold them by the hand at every step until the purchase is complete.
Optimize Real-Time Inventory Management
Another essential element to a successful BOPIS system is to ensure always-accurate online inventory information. If a customer makes a purchase online, only to learn later in the checkout process, or worse at the store, that you don’t have the item in stock, your customers walk away with a less than favorable impression of your dealership.
Implement a robust inventory management system to provide accurate and real-time information on product availability. Preferably, implement an inventory management system that will automatically update availability, so you don’t have to spend all your time inputting information online.
Practice Clear Communication with Customers
BOPIS is a unique feature that’s not currently implemented at every dealership. In fact, it’s currently only offered by 54% of all retailers, according to Fit Small Business. Even so, it’s something shoppers seek out and can serve as a competitive advantage for you to increase sales. But your shoppers have to know about it first.
Give your dealership every advantage by using BOPIS as a selling point for your shoppers. Clearly communicate the BOPIS option on your website, along with any specific instructions, pick-up times and location details. Tell your shoppers how easy it is to use BOPIS.
Consider writing blog posts about it and featuring reviews and testimonials from your customers to build up the hype of buying online and picking up in store. Put information about BOPIS in prominent places on your homepage and product pages. The more your shoppers know about BOPIS, the more likely they are to take advantage of the feature.
Ensure Efficient Order Fulfillment
Have you ever ordered lunch online, only to go to the store at the expected pick up time and have to wait around for your food? Maybe you’ve had a similar BOPIS experience at a big box retailer. It’s not a fun feeling for you or for the restaurant or retailer.
Again, BOPIS is all about ease and convenience. And that means your order fulfillment process has to be as fast as your consumers expect it to be. You have to streamline your order fulfillment process to ensure that products are ready for pickup within a reasonable timeframe.
If you have a part, product or accessory in stock, implement a system for putting it aside and notifying your customer ASAP about its availability. If you don’t already have the product, take steps to ensure that you can secure it quickly and make it available to your customer within a reasonable amount of time.
Remember, even if you’re the only local dealership that offers BOPIS, you’re likely not the only online shop that offers the part or product, even if shoppers have to wait a few extra days for shipping. Efficiency is your advantage. One-fourth of shoppers will choose to shop local if BOPIS options are efficient.
Deliver Customer Notifications
Your customers won’t be satisfied until their new purchase is in their possession. Give them clear instructions for how to pick up their purchase, along with the option to sign up for order pick-up updates via text or email.
Send out a purchase confirmation message immediately, so customers feel reassured about their purchase and have a frame of reference for receiving future updates. Consider implementing an automated system to notify customers when their order is ready for pickup, and to provide clear instructions on the pickup process.
Designate a Dealership Pickup Area
Keeping with the theme of customer convenience comes first, it’s important to create a designated (and easily accessible) area within your dealership for BOPIS customers to pick up their orders. This will benefit both your customers and your dealership in the short- and long-term, as an efficient system can move BOPIS customers in and out without disrupting regular in-store activities.
Provide Flexible Payment Options
You already know that every shopper has their own unique purchase preferences, and BOPIS gives your customers just one more way to make a purchase. But when it comes to actual payment, it’s best practice to keep all options on the table.
Offer various payment options, including online payment and in-store payment upon pickup to cater to different customer preferences. This will make BOPIS a viable buying option for every type of customer.
Offer Helpful Customer Support
While BOPIS isn’t a brand-new retail feature, it’s bound to be new for many of your customers, and it may be out of the ordinary for your industry. To alleviate any concerns and to provide answers to all questions related to BOPIS, be sure to offer a variety of customer support channels, including a dynamic texting service, as well as phone and email information where customers can turn for support.
Even if your shoppers choose not to utilize these support options, they can still help to put them at ease and may encourage them to use the feature for the first time. Of course, your support channels are also there to address any questions or concerns customers may have regarding the BOPIS process, so ensure that your text services and support channels are available and staffed with friendly, helpful service reps.
Collect Feedback
With any new feature or technology, there’s bound to be some bumps in the road and some valuable learning experiences along the way. Collecting feedback from BOPIS customers is one of the best ways to ensure a quick learning curve and that BOPIS is meeting your customers’ expectations.
Collect feedback from customers who utilize your BOPIS service to identify areas for improvement and ensure a positive experience. Use this feedback as a training resource and consider using particularly positive feedback as a way to advertise your BOPIS services to other shoppers.
Convenience for Your Customers
As you continue to focus on making your online offerings and digital storefront more convenient for your customers, implementing BOPIS can benefit your dealership and your shoppers in ways that help you to stand out from the crowd of local competition. Follow these best practices to implement BOPIS at your dealership to bring in new customers, stay ahead of industry trends and give your shoppers the convenient online buying experiences they expect from today’s retailers.