Click and Collect To Surge To More Than £4 Billion In Next Five Years

Click and collect purchases will rise to more than £4 billion in the UK by 2018, according to research firm Verdict.

The rise of more than 60 per cent from today's levels will come from increasing demand for the service as more retailers make it available to customers. 

Verdict said home delivery and pureplay retailers were responding to services offered by bricks and mortar retailers by providing more collection points at convenience stores, lockers, same day delivery to collection points, narrower delivery times slots and improved tracking of delivery transport and arrival.  

In the survey of 10,000 online shoppers, 27 per cent said they expected to increase their use of click and collect. 

However, that will still only make it worth about 8 per cent of sales by 2018 and 1.2 per cent of retail sales.



The analysis showed that clothing and footwear has the highest level of click and collect use with 23.5 per cent of respondents shopping for these goods online and 46.5 of them using click and collect. Electricals followed with 15.4 per cent penetration of online shoppers and 30.6 per cent of them using click and collect. 

Verdict said this was because of the relatively high frequency of clothing purchases and the need to ensure sizer and range availability. It also said clothing purchases could be made for specific demands which required shorter lead times and the relative certainty that click and collect offered compared to home delivery.

Verdict said 54 per cent of user of the service were women.