The Brits love to click and collect

Click and collect is getting more and more popular in the United Kingdom. As a matter of fact, there are more customers who pick up their orders in-store in the United Kingdom than there are in the United States.

Consumers in the UK are becoming increasingly fond of click and collect. It’s no surprise the number of online retailers offering a click-and-collect service has risen hugely over the past few years, from 15.% in 2009 to 43.5% last year, as Micros found out in January this year.

Click & Collect more popular in UK than US

And now eMarketer published an article about data from Econsultancy that shows the uptake of click-and-collect services among online consumers in the UK and the US over the Christmas holiday season last year. Both markets grew, but the internet users were far more likely to use the service, as 45% said they had reserved products online to collect in-store, versus 20% of internet users in the US.

Another survey, also run by Econsultancy last year showed that 63% of consumers have bought something online before collecting it in-store at least once in the past twelve months. One in six consumers use click and collect at least once a month.

Click & Collect accounts for a third of Argos’ sales
Click and collect being popular in the UK is something that’s also proven by British retailer Argos, who revealed that its ‘check and reserve’ service accounted for almost a third of all online sales in the last quarter of 2012. And last week, eBay had revealed plans to expand its click and collect service with Argos to more than 65,000 sellers by the end of this year.

Now consumers are getting more and more used to reserving items online and picking them up in a store nearby, retailers are competing each other to offer consumers the best possible service. There’s a growing number of pick-up points at public places like railway stations and metro stations. For example, last month, Network Rail revealed plans for click-and-collect stores at more than 300 stations.