Case Study: How TFG’s Ecommerce Growth Benefits From Pargo

Deployment of Pargo’s Click and Collect delivery options across TFG brands, helps South Africans to enjoy a world-class customer experience.

 

 

Overview

 

The Foschini Group (TFG), a fashion lifestyle retailer, was one of the first South African retailers to partner with Pargo to offer their customers a Collect in Store solution. TFG.co.za offers online shoppers a wide range of products from one of their 20 brands, including Sportscene, @Home, Foschini and Markham.

TFG and Pargo entered into a partnership in 2017 and worked closely together to roll out the Collect in Store delivery solution across all brands. Collect in Store allows online shoppers collect their online purchases at a store within the TFG group.

The companies initially rolled out the Collect in Store solution to 180 TFG stores at a limited amount of brands and decided to roll out across all brands after reviewing the results and feedback from customers on the new innovative delivery method. Fast forward to 2019, the total current number of TFG stores offering the Collect in Store service is sitting at over 500 stores, across their portfolio of 20 retail brands nationwide with and thousands of deliveries every day.

 

The Problem

 

Mobile technology and internet accessibility have shaped consumer preferences and online purchase behaviour. This has given birth to the global Click and Collect take-up, and retailers connecting “bricks and clicks” for a more holistic client experience.

TFG picked up on this global trend early on. For a brick and mortar group, blending the online and offline customer experience was important if they wanted to compete with other popular retailers. Online deliveries and returns should be optimised around customer convenience and preference and there’s no reason why this can’t be the case in the South African environment.

Digital transformation was the solution they knew they needed, to fully embrace the modern shopper and offer a streamlined customer experience. TFG needed a partner to offer e- commerce delivery solutions for all South Africans.

 

The Solution

 

TFG responded to this challenge by joining forces with local tech start-up Pargo to create a seamless, customer centric Click and Collect service to boost its e-commerce platform. A symbiotic relationship was established where both organisations involved could focus on their core business. Pargo now handles all of TFGs Collect in Store and Pargo Pick-up Points deliveries. Brent Curry, Chief Innovation Officer at TFG, explains that start-ups offer solutions that are attractive in terms of pricing, while the rate at which a start-up can change or add new functionality is much quicker when compared to larger organisations where changes take a lot longer to be implemented.

  He says: “We know that exceptional tech talent usually prefers working in the edgier start-up space, rather than at a big corporate where their freedom and creativity is more likely to be stifled. So working with start-ups enables us to access that very scarce talent.”  

The collect in store option offers retailers and customers a completely unique set of benefits.

• Lower cost
• No more missed (home) deliveries
• Ease of returning the item back on the spot (exchanges)
• Quick refunds
• Combine shopping with collections
• Exposure to new goods and trends while in-store
• Personal interaction with brand ambassadors in-store
• More details about the product
• How it works

Pargo is involved in the client journey from the online website checkout page, collection of the physical parcel, training and managing the store staff, and overall managing all parcel movement using their logistics platform. Parcel tracking is communicated with customers in regular intervals via email and sms. In addition, customers can track progress and exact location of the parcel in real-time on the Pargo website.

While Pargo’s focus on tech is strong, Pargo is all about human relationships and collaboration. Pargo invests a fair amount of our time and budget into nurturing relationships with courier partners, suppliers and pick-up points. A designated team engages in regular communication and training sessions to ensure the smooth transfer of parcels along the supply chain. Results

TFG benefits from the Collect in Store service in more than one aspect. The service also allows people that might be at home during the day to receive their orders to still make a purchase and collect at their own convenience. The survey showed that 29% of collections happened outside of office hours in the evenings or on the weekend.

It also allows TFG to attract their online customers back to their stores which creates an opportunity for upsell. Typically Pargo sees that 1 in 3 consumers collecting their parcel will go on to purchase other goods. A number that is in line with Click and Collect stats globally.

90,2% TFG customers rated the Pargo delivery experience either excellent or good and indicated they would use the service again.

Currently, 23% of TFG’s online customers choose Pargo Collect in Store as a delivery option.