Black Friday traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season and is a huge revenue generator for online companies. In fact, 30% of yearly sales are done in this period. According to MyBroadband 51% of respondents shopped online, while 28% said they shopped online and at brick-and-mortar stores.
Those are impressive figures, but how did Black Friday affect the deliveries of products purchased online?
21% of online shoppers opted to buy online and collect in store during the weekend according to smart logistics company Pargo, with ‘Click and Collect’ orders up 61% compared to the same period last year.
TFG, Cape Union Mart and OneDayOnly are just a few of the online retailers that offer the pickup point solution, in order to give their consumers more flexible delivery options and the convenience of not having to wait at home for the courier all day.
Lionel Shap, head of operations said Pargo processed 10 times more orders over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend than normally and that Pargo saw an increase of 179% in orders compared to the same period last year.
The Click and Collect customers chose to collect their orders from 1,087 pickup points nationwide. Over 100 orders per day were processed by 77 pickup points. The delivery method was particularly popular in regional areas where 56% of all collections happened.
The top user collected 11 parcels at 1 store. The fastest delivery during this period was for a parcel ordered at 20:34pm on Cyber Monday. The parcel was delivered to the pickup point at 8:02am the following morning.
Online shoppers using Click and Collect have indicated that the experience was excellent, resulting in an average 4.8 experience rating on Google during this period.
“South African online retailers have done their part to build better customer experiences for online shoppers and the 61% growth of Click and Collect as a delivery method highlights how important it is to offer flexible delivery options” said Lars Veul, director and co-founder of Pargo.
Shap adds, “The growth of Click and Collect is in line with the global trend and we believe it makes even more sense in the South African context where many people live in areas that have limited access to online products and where traditional delivery services have disappointed them”.
