Dive Brief:
- Best Buy joined the peak season delivery push on Tuesday announcing Free Next-Day Delivery. The offer has two main caveats, a $35 minimum purchase is required (except for My Best Buy Elite and Elite Plus members) and delivery restrictions will apply during the week of Thanksgiving and on Sundays.
- Generally easy to ship, small to medium-sized products will be eligible, according to the post, but larger items that "won't fit down the chimney," like big-screen TV's and heavy appliances, will be excluded.
- The retailer noted that customers in areas where next-day delivery is not an option will receive free standard shipping, no minimum purchase required. All shoppers will be able to use buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS) services as well.
Dive Insight:
In addition to these options, Best Buy offers same-day delivery in 42 U.S. cities for online orders completed before 3 p.m. and curbside pickup in select markets.
According to the retailer's post, 70% of Americans live within 10 miles of a Best Buy location and 40% of their online orders are picked up in-store. As the company heads into peak season competition with Amazon, and other big box retailers, it is looking to leverage its brick and mortar footprint and the growing popularity of BOPIS with consumers to increase sales.
Walmart and Target have been taking a similar approach to staying ahead of the "Amazon-ification" of retail. According to a recent Coresight Research report, in the past year, about 50% of U.S. consumers who used BOPIS picked up items from Walmart and about 34% did so at Target.
The primary drivers of BOPIS' popularity with customers, according to the study, are avoiding shipping costs, getting orders quicker and taking advantage of promotional offers. For retailers, the strategy has the benefit of increased add-on sales and foot traffic when consumers come to the store to pick up online orders.
