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Fetch-it-Yourself. Only about "five percent of all online sales last year were picked up in-store," but that percentage is expected to increase, according to Forrester Research, http://www.forrester.com, as reported by Chao Xiong in The Wall Street Journal. One reason is, shoppers want to avoid paying shipping costs. Another is, they can get the item faster. And, of course, they can return it on the spot if the merchandise doesn't meet expectations. But the greatest driver of this online-offline trend appears to be the retailers themselves, who enjoy opportunities to register impulse sales every time one of their online customers sets foot inside their stores.
Indeed, REI, the sporting-goods retailer, "estimates that a third of online shoppers who pick up their items in stores spend an additional $90 before they walk out the door." The retailer has been taking that dynamic to the bank since June, when it introduced a fetch-it-yourself policy. Today, REI, http://www.rei.com, says "almost a third" of its online sales are picked up in-store. They're not alone: Circuit City says "about half of its online shoppers now opt for in-store pickup."
Such shopper response has retailers hoping that fetch-it-yourself policies will provide some fresh momentum to online shopping, sales from which total more than $36.9 billion this year, according to comScore Networks, http://www.comscore.com. That's 18 percent more than last year, but less than the 30 percent gain posted in 2002. Thing is, relatively few retailers are prepared to make the idea work, in some cases because customer service reps are based in Bangalore, for example. However, Sears is so confident of its online-offline offering that it guarantees items will be waiting for shoppers when they arrive at the store. And Circuit City boasts that online orders are ready for in-store pickup within 15 minutes, 99 percent of the time.
Tim Manners, editor
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