The Warehouse opens Click and Collect store

The Warehouse has this week opened a Click and Collect store on Customs Street in Auckland's CBD, enabling customers to collect online purchases.

 The store, which opened on Wednesday, is a pop up that is only 30 square metres in size with no inventory on its shelf.

Customers shopping online can select this store for collection for purchases and pick them up when notified that their order is ready for collection.

Customers can also shop at the store, but will do so via the store's 'Endless Aisles' service, and pay by credit or debit card, as the store is cashless.

Endless Aisles is an innovation available in all The Warehouse stores and links checkouts with The Warehouse website. It enables all stores access to the full range online and makes that available to customers at checkout.

Craig Jordan, The Warehouse chief digital officer, says the pop up store will offer customers added convenience, and underscore the ease of shopping online.

"If you're at home in the evening, but work in the city, you can shop after work, knowing you can pick up from Customs Street the next day during a break from work," he says.

The store is an opportunity for the company to test the concept and learn what works best for customers, before considering opening similar stores at other sites convenient to large numbers of customers.

Jordan says home delivery was available for all online purchases, but this didn't suit everybody.

"Click and Collect is proving very popular among our customers, as they enjoy the convenience of being able to pop into a store or pick-up point, grab their order and keep moving," he explains.

New Zealand online sales at The Warehouse Group have grown from $18.8m in 2011 to $149.2m in 2015.

Jordan says that a 'clicks and bricks' retail model was proving to be more effective than pure online, especially for the range of products The Warehouse offered, because of the choice and flexibility it offered customers.