Click-and-collect purchases to rise by over 60% by 2018

Click-and-collect purchases are expected to surge by more than 60% to reach the $6.1 billion-mark (£4 billion) in the next five years, as consumers choose to use the increasingly prevalent and convenient service. Research from UK-based retail analyst Verdict shows that of the 10,000 online shoppers surveyed, 27% of respondents said they expected to increase their use of click-and-collect service.

According to Verdict analyst Matthew Rubin, “Home delivery companies and pureplay online retailers are looking to offer collection points at convenience stores and lockers, same-day delivery, narrower delivery time slots and improved tracking and updates of estimated delivery times to bolster the click-and-collect facility.” However, despite the rapid growth of the service, it will still only account for around 8% of online sales in 2018 and 1.2% of the total retail sales.

The clothing and footwear sector has the highest penetration of click-and-collect use, with 23.5% of customers surveyed shopping online and 46.5% being click-and-collect users in the category. The second-placed sector is electricals, which has 15.4% penetration of online shoppers and 30.6% of click-and-collect users. Research also showed that the split between men and women is relatively even with 54% of women making up the users.