The Next Big Thing in Online Shopping: The Offline Connection

When new data show holiday shoppers actually prefer to shop in stores rather than online, e-commerce sites have to get creative.

Farfetch, the e-commerce hub that connects online shoppers to hundreds of indie clothing boutiques around the globe, did just that with its latest venture aimed at getting its online customers inside stores in time for gift-buying season.

The company’s new Click & Collect service lets consumers order items from many of Farfetch’s more than 300 boutiques around the world, and have their order sent to a more conveniently located store. That means shoppers can order a dress from Cyprus and have it delivered to lower Manhattan.

The service brings the offline benefits of in-person service to the convenience of online shopping.

By rolling out the service just in time for the holiday shopping season, Farfetch could help independent retailers across the globe gain more foot traffic from its online shoppers, even if those shoppers were not originally intending on purchasing anything from the boutique in which they pick up their items.

The connection between online and in-store shopping could prove crucial to Farfetch, whose traditional business model sticks with purely online shopping. But more consumers today, surprisingly, prefer to shop at brick-and-mortar merchants for the holidays.

And as Farfetch promotes less traditional, independent fashion boutiques, the company must combat the trend of millennials reviving the department store shopping experience as chains like Macy’s and Harrods give their images a facelift.

Online retailers of the fashion world, meanwhile, have turned to technological innovation to attract new shoppers. Most recently designer Rebecca Minkoff has installed mirrors in her Soho dressing rooms that let shoppers pay for clothing via PayPal in just one click. And UK startup Smartzer just secured funding to launch an interactive online shopping experience that uses video technology as a way to purchase clothing right off the runway.