The advantages for customers are that they can save on shipping costs and the delivery time is shortened. Customers can look at the product catalog from the comfort of their own home and use sources such as comparison portals to make their selection, where they can read user reviews to find the best product. The product can usually be picked up on the same day or the following day. Click and Collect also addresses customers' needs for convenience and speed: no long searches for products in the store, no long queues at the checkout and receiving the desired product faster than would be possible with home delivery.
This allows shop operators to relieve the burden on their stores during peak times, offer customers more flexibility, avoid possible complications with shipping and delivery, and overall offer a service that is halfway between online and personal shopping.
In Germany, only 57% of consumers have already used Click and Collect, of which most (51%) would use it again. This figure is higher in all other countries surveyed in this study.
However, in Germany the system works very well: 90% of users say they have not encountered any delays or problems. In the other countries surveyed, there are more problems with the hybrid purchasing method.
Automation in restaurants is accepted, but the chef cannot be replaced
When eating out, people place much more value on customer service than when shopping. 40% say new zealand telegram data customer service is somewhat important in a grocery or retail store, and 17% said it is very important to them. But in restaurants, the picture is very different: More than half (54%) say customer service in a restaurant is very important, and 34% say it is somewhat important.
We wanted to know to what extent they are still open to automation in restaurants and whether there are differences between seated and fast-service restaurants. In a fast-service restaurant, customers order or pick up food at the counter or at a window. This includes fast food restaurants, such as McDonalds, where orders can be selected and paid for on a touchscreen and then picked up at the counter.
Overall, respondents felt that automation is acceptable for both types of restaurants. However, when it comes to the actual food preparation, most believe that this should be left to human chefs. Although not yet widely used, robots are already appearing in the restaurant industry that can take over certain tasks from chefs or service staff.
Graphic: Tasks that can be performed by automation technologies instead of human personnel
Digitalization in retail: Which automation technologies can replace humans
Not only is artificial intelligence (AI) the hottest trend in the tech industry, our study participants can also imagine being able to order food via an AI tool such as a chatbot. More than half (62%) say they are likely to place such an order.