John Lewis to extend click & collect service through tie-up with local shops
John Lewis, the employee-owned department store chain, is looking to expand its click & collect service across the UK by offering customers the facility to collect their online orders from local corner shops.
Customers are currently able to collect their online purchases from Waitrose stores, the retailer’s sister chain. However John Lewis managing director Andy Street said he had been in discussions with a number of parties about extending the current click & collect service to enable customers to collect their goods from a network of local shops around the country.
Street revealed the plans at the British Retail Consortium Symposium where he also said that British retailers who offered their customers an omni-channel retail experience needed to run no more than 70 physical stores to reach every customer in Britain. Street said: “We believe that national coverage for an online retailer in 2020 is no more than about 60 or 70 shops. The days for needing 200 to cover the UK are clearly history.”
