Do you click-and-collect or Grab and Go? If you’re not familiar with the terms, you soon will be as big retailers start implementing deeper efforts to get shoppers buying groceries and other products from their online stores.
Those burgeoning plans are pitting traditional Canadian heavyweights like Canadian Tire, Loblaw and others against growing rivals like Walmart and Amazon, with the battle lines being drawn now.
On Friday, Walmart announced plans to help “dramatically accelerate” its own online sales.
The retail giant is quadrupling its capacity to fulfill online orders at locations across the Toronto area by introducing “lockers” that hold products for digital customers to 33 additional stores.
Lockers will be introduced at stores in other cities next year.
“We’re hoping to roll this out to other markets over the next 18 months,” Alex Roberton, a spokesperson for Walmart Canada, said.
A first in Canada
It’s the first use of lockers for online orders among any retailer in Canada, experts suggest, and counters the “click-and-collect” trials underway at Canadian Tire, Loblaw and elsewhere. Click-and-collect is where customers purchase goods online and pick them up in store at a customer service counter or from a designated store clerk.
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In late August, Walmart Canada began trialing the locker system at 10 locations in Toronto and surrounding suburbs.
In the United States, Amazon and others have started using lockers to drop orders off in some markets. Amazon.ca has yet to announce plans to bring lockers to Canada.
Walmart’s “Grab and Go” system emails a pin to shoppers who use it to open the in-store locker. The locker service is available to customers within a 50-kilometre radius of eligible stores, but orders are limited to 65lbs. or less.
More convenience?
Lockers provide greater convenience than click-and-collect, some retail experts suggest, because they don’t require the time and effort to interact with or find a store clerk. And if in a public space, locker pick-up isn’t dependent on store hours.
“Click-and-collect has proven very effective but lockers allow greater around the clock flexibility,” said Doug Stephens, principal analyst at Retail Prophet in Toronto.
Michael Memme, an executive at Walmart.ca, said the lockers could also save consumers money on shipping fees if buying gifts for family or friends near a Walmart location. “It a very smart way for customers to send packages,” Memme said.
Orders will remain in the locker for three days; if an order isn’t retrieved it’s returned and customer refunded, Walmart said. Unlike Canadian rivals, Walmart is also spending up to deliver online orders to “most of Canada” at no charge.
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Walmart is the No. 2 online retailer in Canada based on market share, according to BMO Capital Markets estimates, trailing only Amazon.
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