Via.Delivery has been collecting data and commentary on its delivery option for retailers, and it is now sharing that information in the Buy Online, Pick up Anywhere BOPA Index.
The new BOPA Index, released Tuesday morning, shows customers and retailers key metrics around the company, the first of what the company expects to be quarterly releases. Via.Delivery said that 18 % of U.S. online shoppers choose BOPA when offered that choice at checkout, and 50% of those using BOPA save money on shipping when compared to residential shipping options.
Mitchell Nikitin, CEO and co-founder of Via, said that Buy Online, Pickup Anywhere solves pressing challenges that arise during the Pandemic. At a time when residential shipping can cost 30% more than shipping to a commercial address, BOPA offers a cheaper alternative and gives consumers the ability to ship packages anywhere for convenient pickup. Since 2019 nearly 70% of online shoppers choose BOPA when they give the choice at checkout. Via.Delivery launched in the U.S. to bring that number closer to Europe, believing that shoppers and delivery providers can lower costs.
After BOPA was launched under the buy-online, pick-up in-store BOPIS concept used by many retailers, Nikitin told Modern Shipper that the decision to market around BOPA was to clarify what Via.Delivery was. Via.Delivery is something that customers are looking for. More than 21,000 pickup locations are offered in the U.S. through a technology platform and partnerships with physical stores. There is a custom API and Shopify plug-in to give pure-play online retailers access to these delivery locations. Some customers believed that the item purchased had to be picked up at the store location. That is not the case. The item can be shipped to any of its participating locations.
Five-four percent of online shoppers who chose to go for the shipping option were within a mile of a shipping location, said Nikitin, noting that the most popular cities for BOPA use are New York and Chicago.
Some people said they were doing what they were doing before, which was paying a small business across the street for the entire apartment building packages to be shipped to so they could come and pick up their packages, so the service was already there, he said.
The index indicates that 93% of Americans currently live within a 5 mile radius of a BOPA location.
The service allows pickup locations - often retail store locations - to bring in additional foot traffic. It helps reduce porch piracy, something that 30% of consumers cited as a reason to use Via.Delivery. Nikitin said the company's index compared cities where porch piracy was highest and found a direct correlation to the most popular locations for BOPA use. Portland, Oregon; Seattle; Austin, Texas; and San Francisco all have ranked in the top seven locations for porch piracy and BOPA use.
Via.Delivery found that 50% of those choosing BOPA do so for the cost savings, while 15% cite added security and 15% name convenient delivery as reasons for choosing the option. Another 15% say they used BOPA to keep gifts secret.
Nikitin said that BOPA could be a solution for personal online deliveries that used to go to office locations because there are so many companies working remotely and with an uncertain future as to how many employees will return to office.
The company believes that BOPA will grow in popularity in the U.S. as rising shipping costs drive retailers and e-commerce brands to look for ways to reduce costs.
Nikitin believes that the US will follow European trends and wants to track the data on a quarterly basis to see how it changes over time. Weather data is being flown into the desert by drones. Can they be stopped?