Since the outbreak of the pandemic, various industries have been impacted to varying degrees over nearly three years. Among these, the tourism sector has been hit particularly hard, with outbound travel plunging by 70-80%. It is estimated that overseas large, medium, and small physical retailers have incurred losses amounting to hundreds of billions or even trillions of RMB due to travel restrictions alone. In this context, LinkieBuy has provided a “lifeline” for struggling merchants by facilitating their entry into the Chinese market through online channels.

However, as early as two years ago, LinkieBuy foresaw the need for merchants to prepare for post-pandemic changes in consumer behavior. The pandemic significantly altered shopping habits, and it is unlikely that consumers will revert to pre-pandemic patterns. To address this, LinkieBuy introduced an O2O (Online-to-Offline) mall model. This approach enables a full-channel layout combining online and offline sales, capturing in-store customers while driving sales growth for merchants and brands.

1 Layout of the “Store Pickup” Service

China's outbound tourism spending has consistently ranked first globally. In 2019, China's outbound tourism market saw robust growth, reaching 155 million trips with total overseas expenditures of approximately $245 billion. Following China’s relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions, mainland tourists are now engaging in “revenge travel.”

According to Oliver Wyman’s predictive models, China’s outbound tourism is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by the second quarter of 2023. For the global tourism industry, a significant positive signal is that the first wave of travelers stepping out of the country are likely to be young shoppers with substantial purchasing power. This suggests that consumer spending may recover faster than the number of travelers.

2 Current Urgency for Overseas Retailers

Currently, for overseas retailers, acquiring customers and orders is the most pressing issue. Due to the pandemic, the “store pickup” model has become increasingly accepted and favored by consumers. This new consumption model lies between home delivery and in-store shopping.

“Store pickup” depends on the consumption environment, and what merchants care about most is whether consumers are willing to accept store pickup. Data from various sources shows:

Suning Fresh Market: After adopting the store pickup model, Suning Fresh Market achieved a 7-fold increase in sales within a month, with some stores experiencing more than a 10-fold increase. The repurchase rate reached 61%, and nearly 60% of orders were placed via the APP.

Luckin Coffee: Currently, over 90% of its stores are self-service pick-up stores.

HeYTEA (喜茶): In January of this year, 82.31% of users chose to order online, including both pick-up and delivery services.

Uniqlo: During last year’s Double Eleven, Uniqlo’s Tmall flagship store quickly broke the 1 billion RMB sales mark. Sales at O2O stores nationwide grew several times over compared to the previous year, with rapid growth in store pickup.

From these data points, it is clear that Chinese consumers are willing to choose store pickup if it offers convenience, efficiency, and cost savings in specific consumption scenarios.

This is one of the most critical components of LinkieBuy’s integrated online and offline solutions for overseas merchants.

3 How the “Store Pickup” Model Helps Merchants Increase Sales

Chinese tourists can place orders in advance via their mobile phones before traveling abroad, lock in products, and then pick them up in-store, completing the entire transaction process. For overseas retailers, this store pickup model represents the best path to increasing sales.

4 Breaking down the store pickup process:

Shopping Path Online Completion: The shopping path is completed online, making it more precise. Offline foot traffic generally has a low conversion rate. Increasing this conversion rate can significantly boost performance. This shifts from impulsive purchases to planned buying decisions.

Easier Reach Through Online Traffic: Especially for brands with established reputations, online traffic is easier to reach than offline.

Additional Purchases from Store Traffic: In-store traffic can lead to additional purchases of other products.

Store pickup breaks the last mile barrier; consumers complete the final step of obtaining their goods, greatly reducing fulfillment costs while introducing more traffic to physical stores.

Connecting this link means more precise in-store customers, allowing merchants to prepare product inventories in advance. Shopping behavior occurs before customers arrive in-store, which further drives traffic to physical stores. Subsequent online marketing can generate higher repurchase rates. The potential of store pickup is significant, especially for specific product categories. If the right scenario is found and density reaches a certain level, it can rapidly become a dark horse, surpassing others.

For overseas merchants, connecting the store pickup link is the most crucial part of achieving integrated online and offline marketing, precisely directing offline customers to stores and accumulating them into an online customer base. Subsequent online marketing can promote repurchases, forming a closed loop.

For overseas merchants, achieving integrated online and offline marketing requires solutions, but more importantly, it necessitates changes in how merchants operate across both platforms. Under the transformation of people, goods, and venues, every link begins to integrate and communicate. LinkieBuy can provide comprehensive integrated marketing solutions for merchants, along with a series of additional services involving store pickup, online operations, cross-border transactions, and more. LinkieBuy creates value for overseas merchants at every stage.