Demand for fashion to drive click & collect over the next 5 years

Click & collect services are likely to continue growing in the UK as it continues to outperform the wider online channel, with expenditure predicted to grow by 64 percent between 2016 and 2021, according to data from Verdict.

Click & collect is growing faster than online, which is expected to increase 38 percent over the same period and is predicted to grow across all categories, especially fashion, which is forecast to grow by an astonishing 85 percent over the next five years. However, while increasingly time-poor consumers aim to minimise their time shopping, the growth of click & collect is predicted to wane as the market matures.

"A growing number of consumers choose click & collect when purchasing online – though largely to avoid delivery charges," commented Zoe Mills, Analyst at Verdict Retail. "Retailers must ensure that click & collect is as efficient as possible, particularly by offering same-day collection, to ensure it doesn’t lose out to retailers with delivery subscriptions propositions."

The future growth of click & collect is likely to be impacted by retailer improvements to fulfillment, with the largest threat to the channel coming from home delivery subscription services, warns Verdict, most notably Amazon Prime, Asos Next Day Delivery and Boohoo. These home delivery subscription services act as a saving scheme for consumers who frequently shop online, as they pay a fixed fee for annual delivery. Other online retailers are expected to follow in suit, with a number of department stores currently researching how they can benefit from such subscriptions.

In the past, retailers favours click & collect as its encouraged additional purchases in store once a customer came to collect their parcel. For example in 2015, 39 percent of consumers made an additional purchase when collecting their delivery. This in turn suggests retailers are doing well in store and encouraging consumers to further browse their offerings while collecting purchases.

However the rapid uptake of click & collect has also caught a number of retailers off guard as well as the associated costs linked to offering the service. At the moment click & collect only generates on average 13 pounds per consumer in additional purchases, not a huge amount. Delivery subscriptions on the other hand, link consumers to the retailer for a year and as a result, customers who are signed up for one are more likely to spend more of their money at the retailer.

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