Etam to Test Home Delivery and Pay Later Options

The ready-made brand Etam considers launching a home delivery service, enabling their customers to try on the products and pay later for these items. This innovative approach to logistics could contribute to increasing average shopping cart amounts, and save their customers some time, also they would only pay for the clothes that actually suit them.

Etam will introduce a new home delivery service and pay later option this fall. Customers would then only pay for the items they like after trying them on. The idea for this brand is to feature an express service that would require less than three days: from ordering products to planning returns. Then the product can be back on sale faster. They are currently working on the pricing scale.

The group is also considering some changes, for instance in partnership with Deliver.ee, which focuses on scheduled delivery. A ship-from-store option will make it possible to choose the most relevant store for sending an order: customers may then pick up their product in a given store within three hours. A real time parcel tracking option is also considered as well as customised notifications.

These innovative services helped Etam improve customer relation management in the retail sector. Key success and development factors for the group include improving customer loyalty, increasing the average shopping cart amount (+18% with express shipping option), and reducing return rates (8 to 9% with Deliver.ee vs 12 to 13% with typical shipping services).

Comments – Paving the way for payment facilities

It is not the first time a retail player adds a deferred payment option: in France, in 2017 Zalando introduced “Pay Later”, an offer similar to Etam’s new option. Yet, a 14 day delay apply before sending back the articles, in compliance with Etam’s express service. And, in Australia, Topshop lets customers walk out of the store with their products and pay for these items later using Afterpay.

This service is meant to remedy financial hindrances and act as a means to secure customer loyalty: they are then likely to order more products and more often. Also, when it comes to logistics, Etam addresses the issue of product returns and subsequent idle inventory constraints. This observation was critical to implementing such a service.

This strategic launch would also contribute to establishing pay later options and might open the way for credit options, as already featured by Afterpay.