Giving shoppers a chance to pick up their packages is causing more to visit their local Whole Foods Market, according to research from inMarket. Serving as a package drop-off point can work for any neighborhood retailer who already has a trusted relationship with customers and wants to give them another reason to drop in and buy something.
Short “micro” visits of three to five minutes are up by 11% since Amazon closed its purchase of Whole Foods Market in August, inMarket reports. That compares to a 7% increase in stores that do not have the lockers. In some cases, the lockers allow for products purchased on Amazon to be returned.
Whole Foods Market was below the industry average for short visits compared to other grocers, so this appears to be all incremental business, notes WholeFoods Magazine merchandising editor Jay Jacobowitz, president and founder of Retail Insights.
Think about what you can do to stimulate more quick visits—be it a ready-to-go “solution” section of products that work for the season—summer’s around the corner—or something more sophisticated like an overhaul of your check-out and payment system keeping time spent in a line to a minimum.
Look at the success of companies offering apps that let you jump the line to pick up your morning coffee. What can you offer that will convince a customer to add one or two short stops to their regular visiting schedule?
We’d like to hear your ideas.
Published in WholeFoods Magazine May 2018
