Ship from Store: From Delivery Innovation to Long-Term Competitive Advantage [5 Reading Tips]

Ship from Store Reading Tips — Source: Pexels/Kampus Production

Three billion euros. Ingka Group, which operates the majority of IKEA stores, is set to invest this enormous sum of money to revamp its stores. In this context, ship from store is an important concept. Products ordered online are shipped to customers from one of the stores and not from a central warehouse. Faster and cheaper deliveries, lower emissions and higher customer satisfaction. Ship from store delivers. Literally.

Ship from Store Promotes Growth

The perfumery chain Douglas has successfully implemented this new delivery concept as well. Since the logistics chain of Douglas is completely digitalised, the inventory in stores can be accessed at any time. An AI decides on the best way to ship orders to customers.

Ship from store is considered one of the biggest growth levers for multichannel retailers. In a recent survey conducted by Retail Gazette and Amazon Shipping, 41 per cent of the 124 retailers questioned said that ship from store was a pioneering delivery innovation.

In addition, respondents stated that ship from store would fit in well with their own customer proposition and would be a more appropriate solution than delivery drones.

Ship from Store Connects E-Commerce and Retail

While e-commerce has already succeeded in bringing the benefits of brick-and-mortar retail online, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the reverse case.

Home delivery, which used to be a unique selling point and is still one of the main reasons for online purchases nowadays, is already offered in stores by progressive retailers such as sports discounter DECATHLON and men’s outfitter engbers.

On the one hand, brands and retailers that integrate such services into their business concept set themselves apart from the competition that does not offer customers this option; on the other hand, they automatically generate valuable customer data in stores that they can also use for their digital channels and campaigns.

This is a crucial aspect because the question of linking offline and online data continues to be one of the major challenges for successful retail and long-term customer relationships.