More and more people research online before they buy - and yet do not necessarily end up with a pure mail-order retailer. This is exactly where click and collect comes in: the customer reserves or orders online but picks up the goods in the store. For local retailers in Hildesheim and the region, this is the bridge between their own website and the physical store - it brings online-informed customers back into town instead of losing them to anonymous parcels. German online retail grew again in 2024 to 88.8 billion euros (HDE), an increase of 3.8 percent (HDE) - and yet online still makes up only 13.4 percent (HDE) of total retail. By far the largest share of revenue is still generated in stores. Click and collect connects both worlds. This article explains why the model pays off for local retailers, what customers value about it and how the technical implementation succeeds on your own site - from the availability display and the pickup slot to the notification.
Key takeaways
- Click and collect connects website and store: reserve online, collect in the store. This brings online-informed customers back into town instead of to pure shipping.
- Online retail still makes up only 13.4 percent of total retail (HDE) - most revenue stays in stores. This is exactly the connection click and collect plays out.
- For retailers this means add-on sales in the store, no parcel shipping and more footfall at the point of sale.
- 87.7 percent of omnichannel retailers already communicate a click-and-collect offering (EHI) - those who do not offer it give away an expected service.
- The four building blocks of implementation are an availability display, a pickup slot, payment upfront or in store and a notification when the order is ready for collection.
Why Click and Collect Matters Right Now
Buying behaviour has shifted, but not as radically as it often sounds. Online retail is growing noticeably again: in 2024 revenue rose to 88.8 billion euros (HDE), and for 2025 the retail association expects a further increase of around 4 percent (HDE). At the same time, online retail accounts for a share of only 13.4 percent (HDE) of total retail - almost nine out of ten euros are still spent in stores. The truth therefore lies not in an either-or but in the interplay. Many people research online, compare price and availability, and then deliberately choose to pick up locally because they need the goods immediately or would rather avoid the trip to a parcel service.
For local retailers this interplay is an opportunity. Those who only have a shop window without an online connection lose the customer who searches for a product at ten in the evening. Those who run a pure shipping shop, by contrast, compete with large platforms that already account for more than half of online revenue (HDE). Click and collect is the third way: it uses the reach of the internet for the initiation and the strength of the store for the close. The goods are reserved online but handed over in the store - with all the advantages of personal contact. Which other shop models exist is put into context by our article on when an online shop pays off for local retailers.
What click and collect means
The Benefit for Local Retailers
The most obvious advantage of click and collect is the elimination of shipping. No boxes, no postage costs, no return parcels travelling for days. But the real value lies deeper: every pickup brings a person into your store. And once someone is standing in the shop, they often buy more than the reserved product. These add-on sales at the point of sale are, for many retailers, the economic core of the model. Added to this is footfall: every pickup is a touchpoint where advice, recommendation and customer loyalty can happen - something a conveyor belt cannot deliver.
Add-on sales in the store
Whoever collects the goods stands in your shop and sees the rest of the range. A reserved item often becomes a second or third purchase - the classic impulse at the point of sale.
No shipping effort
No boxes, no postage, no return parcels. The goods stay in the store and are handed over there. That saves packaging, time and the cost of returns.
More footfall at the POS
Every pickup is a personal touchpoint for advice and recommendation. This turns an online reservation into a real customer relationship instead of an anonymous delivery.
There is also a head start in trust that pure online retailers first have to build laboriously. As a local retailer you have an address, a shop window and a face. The customer knows where to knock if in doubt. This closeness lowers the barrier to reserving online, because the pickup takes place in the familiar store. The effort stays within limits: you do not need a logistics centre, because your warehouse is the shop. How to make this closeness visible in Google search too is shown by our article on local visibility in Hildesheim.
The Four Building Blocks of the Technical Implementation
For click and collect to work, four building blocks have to mesh together. They can be implemented step by step and grow with your business. What matters is that they are cleanly integrated into your website rather than running through an external portal - this way the appearance stays consistently yours and the data stays with you.
The first building block is the availability display. Before reserving, the customer needs to see whether a product is in stock in your store - ideally in real time. Few things are as frustrating as a reservation for an item that then is not there after all. That this building block is becoming standard is shown by the figures: around 53 percent (EHI) of online shops with a store already display store stock. An honest, up-to-date display builds trust and prevents disappointed customers at the shop door.
The second building block is the pickup slot. The customer should know from when and until when they can collect the goods, and ideally choose a slot themselves. This gives them planning certainty and gives you the chance to fit the pickup into your daily routine. Especially for goods that first have to be picked and prepared, a realistic time slot is more helpful than an empty instant promise.
The third building block is payment. There are two ways here: payment upfront in the online shop or payment only at pickup in the store. Both are widespread - click and collect with online payment is offered by around 60.8 percent (EHI) of providers, payment in store by about 48.8 percent (EHI). Upfront payment makes the reservation more binding and lowers the number of no-shows; payment in store, by contrast, lowers the barrier for the first step. Which way fits better depends on your range and your customers.
The fourth building block is the notification. As soon as the goods are ready for collection, the customer should receive a clear message by email - with pickup location, opening hours and reservation number. This notification is the moment when an online reservation turns into a real store visit. A friendly, easy-to-read message that also works on a smartphone makes the difference. Because around two thirds, specifically 66 percent (HDE) of online revenue, is now generated via mobile devices.
| Aspect | Payment upfront online | Payment in store |
|---|---|---|
| Bindingness | Reservation is paid and firm | Reservation without payment, less binding |
| No-shows | Rarer, as already paid | More frequent, goods are left waiting |
| Entry barrier | Slightly higher, account or payment needed | Low, pay only in the store |
| Add-on sale | Possible, but payment already made | Natural, the till is used anyway |
| Suits | Higher-priced, plannable goods | Everyday purchases and spontaneous pickup |
Your store is your warehouse
What Customers Value About Click and Collect
A model only catches on if it brings customers real benefit. With click and collect the most important reason is tangible: 54 percent (Statista) of users value saving on shipping costs. Whoever collects the goods themselves pays no postage - an argument that counts especially for smaller order values. In second place comes support for local retail: around 48 percent (Statista) name exactly that as a reason, as do just as many the flexibility of collecting the goods whenever it fits their own day. The customer decides on the timing themselves instead of waiting for a delivery window.
Further reasons round off the picture and show how closely the online and store worlds merge here. Around 34 percent (Statista) of users each value combining the pickup with further purchases in the store or returning online purchases easily in the store. This last point, the easy in-store return, is another omnichannel service that just under 45 percent (EHI) of online shops with a store already offer. For the customer, the boundary between online and offline thus disappears - they simply use the most convenient path.
- Save on shipping costs, because the goods are collected in person
- No wait for delivery, the goods are available immediately
- Decide yourself when the pickup fits into your own day
- Personal advice and questions directly at pickup
- Return or exchange online purchases easily in the store
- Deliberately support local retail instead of ordering anonymously
Click and collect does not win the price war against large platforms - it wins back the people who want to hold their product today and know their retailer in person.
Visibility: So the Pickup Gets Found
A click-and-collect offering only works if people find it. Many do not search on your website first but on Google - often with local intent and the addition near me. That is exactly when it should be visible that your product is in stock and can be collected. A well-maintained Google business profile with up-to-date opening hours, address and a note about pickup shortens the path from the search result to the reservation. And a clean product page with clear descriptions ensures that your range appears for matching searches at all.
So that the reservation does not fail at the last step, the page has to load quickly and work flawlessly on mobile. A pickup process that stutters on the smartphone loses customers exactly there - and how strongly the website's loading speed decides this is often underestimated. Equally important is that the path from the first enquiry to the reservation is well thought out. How local businesses turn visitors into paying customers is explored in our article on how to win more enquiries through your website.
From Concept to Implementation in Your Own Shop
We implement click and collect as part of your own online shop for local retailers, firmly integrated into your website. The entire process - product selection, availability, time slot, payment and notification - stays on your domain and in your appearance, instead of switching to an external portal. This way you keep control over your product and customer data and remain independent of the rules and fees of external platforms. The customer, in turn, stays in the familiar environment and experiences a seamless flow from reservation to pickup.
The path there does not have to be big. It is often wiser to start with part of the range - for instance the products most frequently asked about anyway - settle the workflows and then expand. This way you gather experience without overreaching. So that the shop stays reliable and secure in the long run, ongoing maintenance and security is part of it too. Anyone weighing up whether a ready-made website builder or a custom implementation fits better will find guidance in our article on whether a website builder or an agency is the right choice. And anyone wanting to send pickup notifications professionally should rely on a professional email with your own domain.
Whether click and collect suits your range and your business can be clarified quickly in a personal conversation. We look at your workflows and implement the pickup function so that it fits your store - without an oversized solution, but with an eye on footfall, add-on sales and a smooth flow.
Sources and studies