John Lewis shoppers will be able to collect goods from convenience stores and petrol stations as part of a new trial.
The company’s collection service will roll out initially to 1,500 locations in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the South West of England, including Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. It will cost £3.
The service will be run in conjunction with Collect+, which counts 5,250 convenience stores, newsagents, supermarkets and petrol stations in its UK network – including Spar, Costcutter and Martin McColl stores. In February, John Lewis began offering free returns via Collect+, allowing customers to return online purchases to their local Collect+ store.
“This is a great example of how Collect+ is the perfect partner for retailers. We are trialling the service in these four regions of the UK to offer John Lewis new customer touch-points, in areas where residents are in need of greater choice and convenience,” said Collect+ CEO Neil Ashworth.
Blog: Click & collect must stand & deliver
Alan Troy, a Spar store manager in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, said: “Our opening hours and the parking available outside make us very convenient for customers and, as a result, the Collect+ service has been extremely popular.
“I’m now telling all our customers that they can choose to have online John Lewis purchases delivered to the store for collection at a time that suits them, whether it’s when buying their milk and newspapers in the morning or picking up dinner in the evening.”
There will be a size limit of 60x50x50cm on the items that can be picked up at participating stores – however, there is no limit on the number of items a shopper can order, a spokesman said.
John Lewis customers can already pick up online purchases from selected Waitrose stores.
The move comes a day after Argos announced plans to provide click & collect services for eBay from its stores.
Click & collect has attracted huge interest from grocers, with both Tesco and Asda outlining plans to expand their respective services last month. However, a recent study by IGD found that just 3% of grocery shoppers had used click & collect in the previous month.
No comments yet