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Walgreens, Nordstrom turn stores into online delivery hubs

4/17/2019
Walgreens and Nordstrom are both implementing the Narvar Concierge online package pickup and return platform.

Narvar Concierge enables brick-and-mortar retailers to provide pickup and returns of customer orders from any online retailer participating in the Narvar network. Walgreens is offering the service at more than 8,000 stores which already offer FedEx Onsite package pickup/drop-off capabilities. Nordstrom is piloting Narvar Concierge at select stores in Los Angeles.

Retailers on the Narvar platform can immediately offer consumers the option to pick up orders or drop off returns at any location in the Narvar Concierge network. In addition to a retailer's existing options, online shoppers can select a Narvar Concierge location during checkout or when making a return. More than 600 retailers, including Sephora, Patagonia, Levi's, Bose, Warby Parker, Home Depot, LVMH, and L'Oréal, participate in the Narvar network globally.

"Customers are continuing to redefine value and convenience, and this is another way in which we can provide a differentiated retail experience, by offering more simple and time-saving solutions," said Alex Gourlay, co-COO of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. and president of Walgreens. "We're leveraging new and different platforms as well as our expansive footprint to bring more services closer to our customers while giving our partners greater reach and access in communities across the U.S."

Kohl’s has had success with a program it launched in fall 2017 that enables customers to make free returns of Amazon packages in 82 select brick-and-mortar stores in Chicago and Los Angeles. Kohl’s has since expanded this program to stores in Milwaukee.

According to Earnest Research analysis of how this program has performed in Chicago, where almost all Kohl’s stores accept Amazon returns, by summer 2018 between 7% and 8% of brick-and-mortar shoppers were returning Amazon items in-store. In Q1 2018, revenue growth at Kohl’s stores in Chicago topped 10%, compared to 5% revenue growth at the rest of the retailer’s U.S. stores. In addition, Earnest data shows that sales, transactions, and customer growth at Kohl’s stores in Chicago during 2018 all outpace the same metrics at Kohl’s stores nationwide in the same time period.
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