BOPIS, ROPIS and BORIS: your store’s best friends

Online killed the physical store? Wrong. Instead, the online world gives new life to the offline reality. And vice versa – if done right. In this lesson, we have three practical examples for you which:

• add significant value to your customer service,
  
• strengthen the bonds with your clients and prospects, online as much as offline – and
  
• connect the digital and the physical world, completing your “360 degree view” of each (potential) customer.

Let’s start with BOPIS (Buy online, pick up in store): Lisa finds the perfect dress at 3 am, while browsing online through her favorite shop. As she doesn’t want to stay at home for the delivery, the retailer gives her the option to pick it up at the store of her choice – whenever it’s most convenient for her.

So, she stops by after work. As the shop assistant identifies her, he’ll advise just like a good friend who knows her well … because he does: thanks to the information gathered by her online behavior. Not only will he be able to make the best suggestions for the perfect clutch she’ll love, but he can also offer her a sample of a new perfume he knows she’ll like – creating and strengthening bonds.

The alternative you have … in store: ROPIS (Reserve online, pick up in store). Again, you combine online convenience and live experience: maybe Lisa is not sure how this dream dress will look on her. She can reserve it online – and after work, she feels the dress from the screen on her skin. In case she doesn’t like it, the shop assistants are able to help her in finding the best alternative. Based on the same personal, empiric and demographic data as automated online workflows – but with the human touch.

Finally, add BORIS (Buy online, return in store), to complete the online-offline interaction triangle. Even before the 2020 pandemic boost to online sales, costs of return deliveries worldwide made for more than a trillion USD. Plus, nobody likes to see unhappy customers returning their purchase … With BORIS, you can easily transform the return into a new buy. What’s more, you make the process a highly personalized one, with the chance to please your clients in person, based on an online sales interaction. What would have been a loss, turns into multiple wins: customer satisfaction, customer data and customer relationship – while directing your online clients (back) to your brick-and-mortar stores.