Ship-from-Store: The Big Opportunity for Retailers
A survey by Digital Commerce found that for 68 percent of consumers, fast shipping is the key to ordering online. For this reason, online marketplaces, especially Amazon, are doing everything they can to further optimize their delivery logistics. The quicker customers can be promised their goods, the more likely they are to buy from the respective supplier.
The question arises as to why, as a consumer, one does not buy the desired products in retail stores in order to hold them in one's hands immediately.
In addition to the cosiness of the people and the easier search on the Internet, the corona pandemic in particular has deprived the shopping streets in the cities of all opportunities to assert themselves against the ever faster growing online trade.
While the physical shops have to close or are only allowed to open under strict conditions, online trade is receiving a strong boost.
Retailers, chain stores and department stores are therefore forced to break new ground in order to continue to exist. One of these ways is the ship-from-store solution.
Ship-from-Store: an explanation
In short: With ship-from-store, retailers connect their local business with their online store. The shop acts as a kind of warehouse from where products bought in the company's own online shop or on external marketplaces are picked up, made ready for dispatch and sent to the customer.
Accordingly, a basic requirement for this is your own online presence or a retailer account on an online marketplace such as Amazon, eBay or otto.de. If such a shop is available, the respective company has new strategic possibilities at its disposal to expand its own business or in times like these
to revitalize.
This is how ship-from-store integration works
In order to integrate ship-from-store into the sales strategy and into daily business, retailers need the support of providers who specialize in this form of service - like the Munich start-up charry.
charry supports retailers, chain stores and department stores with the logistical processes in the ship-from-store business. With the help of API interfaces, charry connects to the shop or merchandise management system of the retailer in order to receive all the necessary order data from the online orders.
Twice a day, a charry driver picks up the ordered goods directly from the stationary shop and takes them to a nearby fulfillment center, where the products are ready for dispatch and finally sent to the customer via DHL, UPS & Co. If a company needs further support, such as processing returns, charry can also take care of this.
Retail Opportunities
The combination of the stationary shop with the online business thus brings with it a multitude of opportunities for the retail trade.
If existing products are no longer available in the fulfillment center of the online trade, the system can fall back on the stationary stock and in this way increase the availability of goods and, accordingly, the company's sales. In addition, the integration of a ship-from-store offer offers fast delivery. Either directly through the service provider or through cooperation with mail order companies such as Hermes or DHL, which now offer same-day deliveries.
In this way, it is also possible for retailers to sell products from the local shop to customers quickly and nationwide.
Conclusion – the world of shopping keeps turning
Developments in recent years have shown that people's shopping experience is shifting more and more in the direction of online offers. The global pandemic has given this development a boost, to which small and medium-sized companies have to react in order not to be left behind by large providers such as Amazon.
Ship-from-Store is a solution that enables retailers to adapt their business to the new circumstances and withstand the increasing pressure from the big international players.
The world of shopping keeps turning. It is up to the companies themselves whether they want to keep up with these developments in order to survive in the future. Providers like charry can be a reliable support.
