Doddle reports “surge” in click-and-collect

Click-and-collect “significantly outperformed the wider delivery market” during the 2015 peak trading period, according to a new report from Doddle, which stated that during its busiest trading hours, a customer collected a parcel from a Doddle store every four seconds.

Doddle’s click-and-collect growth tracked 241 percent higher than the wider parcel market in Q4 2015 as measured against the Metapack Peak Profile Index. With the parcel company adding that total parcel collection volumes experienced 1217 percent growth on the same period in 2014, with total parcel volume for 2015 peaking at over 415,000. This growth has seen Doddle increase its store footprint from 26 stores in 2014 to 45 stores at the end of 2015.

Doddle chief executive officer Tim Robinson, said: “In line with what we have seen from some of the major multi-channel retailer results this week, click and collect significantly outperformed the wider delivery market during peak.”

Penetration of click-and-collect has more than doubled since 2010, averaging 23 percent in 2015 according to IMRG’s Q3 Benchmarking Report, and Doddle is expecting the services popularity to continue to grow. To further highlight this trend, John Lewis’ Christmas results show half of online orders were fulfilled via click-and-collect, suggesting customer demand over peak trading for click-and-collect was much higher.

Click-and-collect experiences growth in 2015, reports Doddle

Robinson added: “John Lewis has long proved itself as the industry leader for in-store click-and-collect and the 16 percent growth of click-and-collect orders reinforces this. With 35 percent of all John Lewis online orders collected from a Waitrose store, it’s also clear consumers value a range of convenient locations to pick up online orders, not just high street store locations.”

The parcel company is stating that consumers trust click-and-collect to avoid delivery failures on last minute orders, which is in line with its total parcel volumes peaking on Monday, December 21, as consumers picked up last minute Christmas presents.

Robinson explained: “As more convenient choices become available, customers are choosing the most convenient options available to them. We believe the later peak in our own volumes is the result of consumers’ growing trust in click and collect services to mitigate the risk of missed home deliveries.

“If consumers believe click-and-collect to be a more reliable delivery option, they will continue to shop until the last minute with greater confidence their order will be delivered the first time and therefore, on time.”

Images: Doddle