Click & Collect option – make the shopping process faster

The option to order online and pick up in-store is ideal for the food industry and is certainly a must-have now. At Synerise, we have participated in the implementation of such a solution at one of our clients and we want to share our experience with you. 

Business background

The click-and-collect option lets customers place an order online and collect it from the nearest store at no additional charge.  

This option contains 4 steps: 

1. The customer chooses a local store  
2. The customer makes a purchase online 
3. He gets the confirmation
4. He pays and collects his order in the selected store. 

It’s clear why this is such an attractive option for customers:

• First of all, you do not need to stand in lines in offline stores 
• You can do your shopping at your own pace 
• You can also collect your order at a time that’s convenient for you 
• There is no need to wait for courier at home 

In case of the Coronavirus, this is also a very safe solution and it makes the shopping process faster and easier without the necessity of meeting other people.  

Main Assumptions

For our client from the FMCG industry, time was essential in this case. It’s important to mention that this client had no online sales before the time of coronavirus and only operates offline stores. But the competition never sleeps. Other competitors introduced such a solution earlier, and our client did not want to fall behind them and so decided to do the same.  

The client decided to introduce this option within weeks from scratch, so it was a huge challenge for all involved. 

How does it work? 

Let’s start with some very brief information about the architecture of the whole solution.  

A software development company was responsible in this case for preparing a frontend and backend solution for the click-and-collect service. 

This service used a mobile application which was connected with Synerise via SDK. 

The software development company sends custom events with information about the order and its status to Synerise. Of course, orders are also sent to the offline shop.  

First of all, in the application users see the main dashboard of the application with a banner which informs them about the click-and-collect service.  

Then in the main menu they can find the link to the click-and-scollect service. When user clicks this option, the web view is opened and they can start shopping. 

There are then 3 steps to complete: choosing the nearest store, adding products to the basket and confirmation. After completing those steps, the client gets a confirmation of the order and an order number.  

Communication with the customer is based on webpush notifications. This includes confirmation of the order. Also, when the order is completed, customers will get a push message with the confirmation that it is now possible to collect it in the selected location.  

It may also happen that some products the user has bought are out of stock during the time the cashier tries to complete the order. When this happens, he marks those products and then a push notification is sent to the customer with information that one of the products is out of stock and the final price will be changed.  

When the customer receives the notification, he must reconfirm the new price or cancel the order.  

How we have helped? 

From Synerise’s perspective, we have helped in the effective implementation of this process. 

We were responsible for following elements: 

• Personalized communication based on custom events sent from the click and collect backend 

When this kind of event is sent to Synerise with the specified sets of attributes, we are able to use it in our communication process. For example, we can create an automation process which is triggered by this event. This means that when a specific event appears, the whole process will start, and we can send the notification or email. 

For example, if the order is completed, the event with confirmation is sent to Synerise. Based on that we send the push to the user that the order is ready to collect.  

• Screen views which help to manage the visibility of the click and collect service to specific groups of clients (location-based segmentation) 

The main dashboard of the application is targeted to a specific segment of people (based on their location), because this offer is currently available only in a specific number of stores. So, we have prepared a targeted banner which appears only if you are currently in one of the locations.  

• Analytics dashboards based on custom events 

Thanks to this, our client has a real time view of how this service works.  

• Email communication to franchisees about incoming orders

With each new order, we send an email to franchisees to inform them about new orders. 

Summary  

We would like to develop this service by adding new possibilities and options. One very effective idea is to offer abandoned cart support to encourages users to finish their purchases. 

We’re also working to add our AI recommendations based on stock availability per shop to display personalized recommendations based on frequently chosen products, or products from categories customers like.  

This kind of service provides a lot of new possibilities and can be a great idea for FMCG companies nowadays, and it makes the shopping process safer not only for customers but also for people who work in stores.