For big box retailers like Walmart and Target, buy-online pickup-in-store is helping their physical stores to increasingly become "virtual fulfillment centers". Why are they pushing it? Because costs associated with home delivery are equivalent to 10% to 15% of an eCommerce brand’s sales vs. 3% when a truck simply delivers goods to stores (according to Deutsche Bank). “The last mile of eComm is expensive. So having that curbside capability, where the vast majority of our orders get shipped from store or get fulfilled from store, that last-mile cost has come down significantly compared to where 2019 used to be,” says Dick’s Sporting Goods' CMO. And the service is a great way to reach new customers too. “We’re able to drive them to our stores so that they can experience the brand, they can interact with all of the services and things that we have going on in our stores,” says Sur La Table' CEO. Read the full story here
