Is click & collect the way to go?

According to GlobalData, click and collect will account for 14% of total online spend by 2022 with the market to reach £9.6 billion in 2022. However, consumer satisfaction levels fell 11.3% between 2016 and 2017.

Cycling Industry News published an interesting discussion piece around the benefits and faults of click and collect for the bike market.

Neil Holman, from George Hall Cycles voices his thoughts, saying that click and collect demonstrates benefits for the cycles industry and the consumer. Click and collect gives the consumer the confidence that their purchase of a bike would have been put together right by the LBS and if this isn't the case then they have somewhere to return the faulty purchase. Holman goes on to argue that the bike industry is fragmented with an eye for numbers, click and collect works well for brands such as Argos but the cycle industry is one he doesn't think it is a solution for.

Sandra Corcoran from Pennine Cycles argues against the thoughts of Holman in saying that click and collect could be the right idea. Corcoran talks about the importance of administrating a scheme in the right manner to get the results.

Mark Almond from Revo Bikes follows the discussion praising the notion of adding click and collect as a scheme for bricks and mortar bike shops. He notes how he has always advocated for click and collect, however, click and collect within the cycles industry is dependent solely on individual shops. Almond discusses how click and collect will work for some and won't take effect on others, it is an option amongst options. Almond, in agreement with Corcoran, places the consumer at the epicentre, where click and collect needs to be weighed against the consumer.

Will it work for the consumer?

It is only once you can answer this question that you know whether or not it will work. If the answer is yes, it is here where click and collect needs to be adopted to the consumer patters.

It is in this day and age where we have to realise that,

"Consumer patterns are driving this change, not the industry. If we don't look after that consumer, the whole industry will suffer".

Mick Murphy from Mickey Cranks highlights the immediacy that click and collect provides, standing out from traditional home delivery with the sense of immediate gratification. As the retail market evolves the cycles industry has to evolve alongside of it.

Critics have voiced their thoughts on click and collect leading up to brands offering B2C, and Holman, Corcoran, Almond and Murphy all agree. B2C has become more prominent in other countries, however Murphy argues that click and collect doesn't necessarily mean the lead up to B2C as click and collect adds value to online offerings. B2C as a scheme removes any form of human interaction placing the consumers in the space of believing they are in control, when they aren't.

What can be taken away from the discussion around click and collect as a potential scheme to be introduced in the cycles industry is that, it is an idea. Think of click and collect like this, it is just the plain canvas, an idea that needs to then be tailored and crafted to suite your consumers.