With the advent of e-commerce giants like Amazon, retailers have had to rethink their model to continue attracting customers.
In e-commerce, customer satisfaction is determined at several key levels: from the first visit to the merchant site thanks to optimized navigation, during the shopping experience at the time of payment, and especially at the time of delivery. Indeed, as soon as a consumer finalizes an order on an e-commerce site, their only obsession remains knowing when they will be able to benefit from their product.
Using effective tools like OMS (Order Management Systems) and a large territorial network of physical stores, the ship-from-store strategy is a formidable weapon for retailers. Read our article.
Ship from store: what is it?
Ship from store is a delivery strategy that allows retailers to deliver to their customers more quickly and is in contrast to the traditional e-commerce strategy that we know, namely that of preparing and shipping orders from a single central warehouse. With ship from store, the physical store is gradually transforming into a dedicated logistics hub and making it possible to meet new consumer expectations.
In contrast to logistics platforms such as Amazon or Cdiscount, whose main advantage lies in the storage of several tens of thousands of references, and therefore in unifying deliveries from a single point.
With ship from store , companies rely on the territorial network of their stores which prepare and ship orders directly to customers.
Delivery, the cornerstone of a successful e-commerce strategy
For 62% of consumers, delivery is the primary purchasing criterion on an online site. It's therefore a major factor that shouldn't be overlooked in e-commerce. If well thought out, it becomes a real asset in customer satisfaction and even helps build customer loyalty.
The massive growth of ship-from-store has allowed new players to position themselves in last-mile delivery. Last-mile delivery is expensive, but it allows products to be delivered to consumers in record time. This is the case for brands like Coliweb, Deliver.ee, and Wing, which offer brands the ability to deliver to their customers in just a few hours and using environmentally friendly means of transport (cargo bikes, electric trucks, etc.).
However, while appealing on paper, the ship-from-store solution requires optimal organization within stores. Because in addition to customers physically visiting, online orders must be efficiently managed. Additional operations such as order preparation (including packaging) and shipping are required, and staff must be trained to perform these tasks properly.
Ship from store: advantages and disadvantages
Here is a list of the advantages and disadvantages of ship from store:
The Advantages of Ship From Store
- Provide an optimal customer experience on delivery by significantly reducing delivery times
- Present a wider range of products to customers by unifying stocks (warehouse + physical stores)
- Avoid stockouts : thanks to unified stocks, a product unavailable in the warehouse can be available in the store
The Main Disadvantages of Ship From Store
- Mastering last-mile delivery
- Choosing a centralized tool: this is all the more difficult when the brand has many physical stores.
- Divide staff time between welcoming customers in the store and preparing and shipping orders
- Optimize physical space: Transforming your store into a mini shipping hub requires space.
The Order Management System: the keystone for an effective ship-from-store strategy
The Order Management System (OMS) is a true ally in ensuring an optimal omnichannel strategy from A to Z, from receiving customer orders to processing them. The software offers real-time inventory updates to avoid errors between physical stores and the brand's online store.
On the market, we can cite solutions from OneStock, Wynd and Shippingbo.
Big brands that are doing well
Faced with the rise of the giant Amazon and its Prime delivery service, which offers 24-hour delivery for its members on a selection of several hundred thousand items, retailers quickly counterattacked. In 2020, the American company claimed 200 million paying Prime customers.
Ship from store is one of the responses to Amazon's model. Brands like Fnac-Darty, Zara, and Etam quickly offered in-store shipping, making it a real asset for increasing sales while retaining some of their customers.
Click and Collect, Return to Store: complementary strategies to acquire and retain customers
Other alternatives exist for retailers to always satisfy their customers' demands. One such service is Click and Collect, which allows you to order online in just a few clicks and pick up your product in-store within the hour. In 2021, according to a Fevad/Médiamétrie study, Click and Collect was used by 41% of consumers.
Return to Store is also an interesting strategy for building customer loyalty by allowing them to easily return a product they purchased online to a store. 66% of consumers report carefully reviewing the retailer's return policy before purchasing. The store then becomes central to the repurchase process.
Ship From Store and Shopify
Obviously, it is entirely possible to implement a Ship From Store strategy from your Shopify or Shopify Plus site.
The exact strategy will obviously depend on the number of stores, as the situation will vary between 3 or 4 stores and 200 stores. It is possible to interface with the OMS mentioned above to benefit from all their services or to use Shopify's location features.
Please note that in all cases, team training and change management remain the major issues to be addressed in a Ship from Store project! Involving HR departments is therefore essential to ensure the success of the project.
Should I switch to Ship From Store?
As you will have understood, the ship from store strategy allows brands to meet consumer expectations while containing the rise of giants like Amazon.
To be fully effective, this strategy requires rethinking its business model and training the teams working in physical stores. These stores then become a logistics hub, like an extension of the company's warehouse.
E-commerce solutions allow you to manage your business from a central tool to increase efficiency.
