Major U.S. retailers including Target Corp and Toys 'R Us have begun allowing shoppers to collect online purchases at their brick-and-mortar stores, but a study shows the option often saves little, if any, time over in-store shopping.
According to a small study to be released on Tuesday by retail-intelligence firm StellaService, in-store pickup saved shoppers just 96 seconds on average compared with searching for items on their own. In a few cases, in-store pickup took longer.
In-store pickup is one of many services being tested as retailers try to use their stores as mini-shipping hubs to get items to shoppers more quickly. It comes in response to competition from the No. 1 U.S. online retailer, Amazon.com Inc, which has streamlined its delivery service.
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