Auchan’s in-store pickup system, the first in-store pickup system to open in France in 2000, has proven to be very effective for both the retailer and the consumer.
Retailer Benefits
- Distribution centers, as opposed to traditional stores, allow the retailer to save money by eliminating overhead stemming from store maintenance.
Consumer Benefits
- Benefits resulting from a system that saves a substantial amount of time.
- Auchan customers have unanimously agreed that the net price of goods purchased through the in-store pickup system are the same as the ones found on products in the same retailer’s hypercenters
Auchan Drive
Auchan Drive Parking Bays
Auchan’s strategy to cater to the time restricted consumer is branded Auchan Drive. Customers are able to visit the retailer’s website and choose from over 6,000 grocery, OTC pharmaceutical, baked good, and wine products. After the cart is finalized, the Auchan Drive customer specifies the day and the hour that is most convenient for pickup. (Pick up time must be at least two hours after placing order online.)
Auchan Drive Posts
Customers can choose to pay for their items online or wait until pickup to pay. When they pull up to the warehouse, customers are greeted by posts (above) that ask if there is anything they would like to add. If customers have not paid online already, they are able to pay at one of these posts get a printed receipt, and move on to pickup.
Five Minutes After Paying, Store Employees Put Items in the Boot
There is no need to enter the store at any point during the process, customers simply park their cars in the bays next to the warehouse and wait. Five minutes after payment was processed at the post a store associate pushes the items out to the car and helps to place the items in the trunk.
Click Here to see the whole store tour on RetailNet Group’s corporate website.
Read about other interesting examples of in store pickup in our earlier posts:
- Order Online, Pickup in Store: Site-to-Store Emerging in Latin America
- Amazon’s New Lockers in 7-11 Stores Seem to be a Good Idea
- Order Online, Pickup In Store
- Tesco Allows Shoppers to Order Online and Pick-Up In-Store
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I’m impressed, I must say. Really rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding; the issue is something that not enough people are speaking intelligently about. I am very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for something relating to this.
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Not sure I understand why you think this is ahead of what is going on in the U.S.. Go to Harris Teeter, Lowes Foods, ShopRite, and many others and you will find:
1. Pickup is the norm
2. Customer never gets out of their car. They use a call box and the groceries come to them.
3. Prices are the same as charged in store.
4. Variety is generally everything available in the store…40-50,000 items.
And they have been doing it with MyWebGrocer help since 2000.
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