The Washington Post shared the story of a Kmart customer who showed up at the store when she received an e-mail that her order was ready, then had to wait around for an hour and a half for the store to actually get her order ready. That’s an extreme example, but shouldn’t be happening.
Yet it is. A study looking at online orders on Cyber Monday showed that 60% of the transactions had problems. StellaService, a company that tests and reports on customer service, found that 25% of these transactions across the whole holiday season had problems.
Retailers are even struggling with the question of what they should call the service: “in-store pickup” or “store pickup” are shot but don’t make the part where the item was ordered online clear. We’ve seen “click and collect,” “click and mortar,” and “bricks and clicks” used in industry publications, and they all make us cringe.
Customers have come to expect profit-gobbling free shipping, and collecting their item from a store is a reasonable alternative, especially when in a hurry.
Buy online, pick up in store. Simple, right? Not this Christmas. [Washington Post]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist