Internet Retailer: Merchants still have much to learn about online order/store pick-up

Online retailers offering in-store pick-up are doing some things quite well. For instance, most are offering same-day service and sending off emails almost immediately to show availability. But even as pick-up service has improved over last year, according to a new E-Tailing Group study, the store staff didn't do much to translate these store visits into incremental sales. Instead, they tended to talk to one another - or to friends on the phone - and generally act distracted.

Half the stores tested didn't have a counter for product pick-ups. Worse, three quarters of them made the customer go through yet another checking out process, even after having gone through the web version.

On the positive side, in-store returns took only half the time it took last year, as the staff seemed to mostly know what they were doing this time around.