The drive is a purchase model that allows you to buy online and collect your order later in store. This type of service is increasingly in demand, since it combines the wide choice of e-commerce with the convenience of withdrawing the purchase with less rigid deadlines than home delivery. In the following lines, we tell you why do your shopping in drive.
The drive, also known as “click and collect” is a service offered by supermarkets and physical shops. It allows consumers to buy products online and collect them at the point of sale or at other collection points set up for this purpose.
This buying model takes advantage of the cross-channel approach, integrating one or all of the digital channels and the physical store. The drive adapts to new technologies and new consumer expectations. Shopping on the drive-thru makes the shopping experience ever simpler, more satisfying and in line with the different needs of customers.
The appeal of drive-thru shopping is that users have the ability to browse a store’s products anywhere, anytime.
Once the product has been added to the cart, users can choose to personally collect their purchase from a physical store. They can choose the store closest to them using a virtual map or by entering the corresponding postcode, depending on the options offered by the supermarket chain.
Many stores offer customers the option of choosing a time slot to pick up the order (especially since the pandemic). If, on the other hand, the product is not available in the physical store, the customer will receive an e-mail with a confirmation when the product is back in stock, so that the customer can go to the store to collect it.
Normally, the physical store keeps the ordered product for a few days, so customers have a little more flexibility to pick up their purchases.
Shopping on the drive saves you from queuing. This is perhaps the most favorable point of this service. As soon as you arrive in store, you will be served directly and you will not have to queue. In the case of a self-service withdrawal, it is even faster, because you will not have to depend on anyone to be served. In normal times, or on weekdays, the difference may not be so obvious. But during festive times like Christmas or the weekend, you’ll notice that you don’t waste time in absurd queues.
Sometimes you go to the store hoping to buy something you saw or something you need, and it’s out of stock or there isn’t any. Conclusion: you drove for nothing. This won’t happen to you if you buy online and then pick up in person.
In addition to not having to queue, you can order it whenever you want and pick it up at a time that suits you best. You don’t have to show up at a specific time to make sure the product doesn’t run out, but it will be reserved and waiting for you.