John Lewis implements minimum spend for click and collect customers

Monday, July 6, 2015 - 12:50 by Graham Miller

John Lewis customers who place orders via safe shopping online to collect in-store will now have to spend at least £30 on products if they want to avoid paying a fee for this service, according to Econsultancy.

The company became one of the first retailers to offer click and collect to customers when it launched the scheme back in 2008, with many other high street chains following suit. But now it seems the honeymoon period is over and it wants to make it a more financially sound delivery option for online orders.

Last year, more than 6 million click and collect deliveries were carried out by John Lewis alone. And retailers tend to favour this method because it also means that consumers are encouraged to get out of the house and actually visit bricks and mortar stores, where additional purchases are often made.

There are questions over whether or not John Lewis will see a negative impact on sales as a result of the £2 charge for click and collect orders worth under £30, but commentators have pointed out that the vast majority of orders do indeed surpass this limit.

Of course, customers who might have popped in to pick up a small item and then ended up making a much bigger purchase could be excluded, which might cause a rethink for John Lewis in the long run. And plenty of other high street rivals that offer safe shopping online, with free click and collect as an option, could benefit from this change.

Analysts have pointed out that in other stores, collection points for online orders have been deliberately located right next to departments which have been faring worse than other areas, to give them a boost. So it will be interesting to see whether John Lewis manages to succeed with this new tactic.