Omnichannel features have become vital services for online retailers with physical stores. Options such as buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS); curbside pickup; in-store stock status; and remote appointment/consultation all appear on sites for merchants in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s database that tracks the top online retailers in North America by annual web sales.
However, while most of these options saw lower adoption in 2024 than in 2023 among retail chains with physical stores, one experienced a slight increase, according to Digital Commerce 360 analysis being shared in the upcoming 2025 Omnichannel Report.
The one feature seeing increased adoption was in-store stock status.
Omnichannel feature adoption by retailers
In their quests to provide convenience, 65.5% of retail chains in the Top 1000 provided in-store stock status to shoppers as an omnichannel feature in 2024. That share was up from 64.4% in 2023. Only 48.1% offered it in 2020.
Moreover, visibility into inventory levels proved to be broadly popular by retailer category. 100% of Automotive Parts & Accessories and Office Supplies retail chains with physical stories offered it. Meanwhile, 87.5% of these merchants in both the Hardware & Home Improvement and Toys & Hobbies cohorts displayed it to customers.
Retail chains offering in-store stock status
The only outliers where less than half offered it were Food & Beverage (25.0%) and Flowers & Gifts (0%).
Benefits of displaying in-store stock status
As with other omnichannel features, retailers in 2024 that shared in-store stock status enjoyed higher conversion rates than those that didn’t. The rate for retail chains that did was 3.3%, higher than than the 3.1% Digital Commerce 360 analysts observed overall among Top 1000 retailers.
Accordingly, consumer preferences seem to validate this feature’s value. An October 2024 report published by the consulting firm AlixPartners found that — among 9,000 fashion consumers surveyed — two-thirds of those shoppers would leave an ecommerce site or store to shop at a different retailer when something they wished to purchase was out of stock.
“Consumers may be shopping digital channels first, but they are back in stores and incredibly frustrated when pricing is inconsistent or they can’t find in-store what they saw online — they are tired of doing the work,” said Sonia Lapinsky, partner and managing director who leads of fashion retail at AlixPartners.
In the meantime, even as other omnichannel features lost share of participants in 2024, the retailers who did offer them also experienced higher conversion rates than those who did not. For deeper numbers and analysis, watch for the new 2025 Omnichannel Report, arriving later this month.
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