MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Robbie Bryce is one of the many consumers who’s recently turned to site to store shopping.
“I just did some online shopping for my son, and it’s just very convenient. While he’s in school, I can run and pick it up real quick before I pick him up from school. It just works out really well,” said Bryce.
Bryce placed an online order at Target hours earlier in the day, and WREG caught up with her as she was picking it up.
“It was just so convenient to walk in and pick up what we wanted. I would have taken 30 minutes to find everything if we were in there looking for it,” said Byrd.
Quick and convenient are some of the benefits of shopping site to store, or “order online and pick up in store” as it’s sometimes called.
But just how well does it really work? WREG tested out the process at four major retailers.
We went shopped online via Target, Walmart, Best Buy and Toys R Us and bought holiday, winter or gift like items at each store. Then we waited to see how long it would take for us to be picked up.
We placed our order at 10:14 a.m. Wednesday morning. We then received a text notification 12 minutes later that our order was ready! Now, we only bought a pair of small earbuds, but that was fast!
Second and third place were pretty close. Target and Toys R Us both took around 30 minutes to fulfill the orders. Walmart took the longest with a wait time of more than three hours and 30 minutes.
We also wanted to see how smooth things went once we got inside the stores. Despite Walmart taking the longest to fulfill the order, pick up was extremely organized. The retailer has signs all over the store directing customers to “pick up”.
There was even an electronic kiosk customers can use once inside. Pick up was also quick and simple at Target, Toys R Us and Best Buy.
At each of those retailers, customers pick up online orders at the customer service desk. Overall, we were in and out at most stores in roughly five minutes.
So, all in all, it was pretty simple, but that’s not always the case at every retailer. Items that are low in stock could get cancelled after you place the order.
