In July, Target began a promotion offering $10 off any web order of $40 or more for any customer willing to pick up their order in-store. This could be one of the first stores to offer incentives to pick up orders in-store rather than have them conveniently shipped to their home, in a move designed to “drive more engagement and use,” as told by Target spokesperson Eddie Baeb to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
However, others are less inclined to agree. Lee Peterson, EVP, creative services, WD Partners, believes this was a way to test the appeal of the BOPIS (buy online, pickup in-store) program.
“The thing is, from a retailer’s perspective, you don’t know how big something like this can be, so you have to get people to try it to see if it has any merit in terms of driving significant volume and then measure its scale,” says Mr. Peterson to RetailWire.
However, Peterson believes that BOPIS is worth providing incentives. “From what I can see from our research, people already like BOPIS a lot, but the ‘top two boxes’ numbers really never cross 60 per cent,” he says in an interview with RetailWire. “Throw 10 bucks in the mix and I’d bet on that number going over 75 per cent.”
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