5 Click & Collect Secrets Revealed: Supercharge Your Retail with an OMS!

A few years ago, a sales director at a major French retail chain confided in me, somewhat embarrassed, that his in-store teams sometimes discovered click & collect orders… at the same time as customers arriving to pick them up. No advance preparation, no reserved stock, no internal notification. Just panic, and a dissatisfied customer leaving empty-handed.

This scenario, as absurd as it may seem, was — and remains — a daily reality for hundreds of retailers who adopted click & collect without mastering its technological backbone.

So, how does click & collect work within an OMS? That's precisely the question this article aims to demystify, without unnecessary jargon, with concrete examples and recent data. Because behind this seemingly simple promise — "order online, pick up in store" — lies a mechanism of formidable sophistication that only a well-configured Order Management System can orchestrate effectively.

Whether you're a retail director, CIO, e-commerce manager, or simply curious to understand why some retailers excel where others fail, you'll find here the concrete keys to transform your omnichannel approach. Buckle up: the secrets I'm about to reveal could well change how you think about tomorrow's commerce.

Understanding Click & Collect: Far More Than a Feature

Click & collect is first and foremost a promise made to the customer: the promise of freedom. Order when you want, where you want, and collect your purchase without waiting for delivery, without shipping costs, without depending on a courier. On the surface, it's simple. In reality, it's one of the most complex services to operate correctly in modern retail.

By definition, click & collect describes the process by which a consumer places an order through a digital channel — e-commerce site, mobile app, marketplace — and collects their order at a physical point of sale. This hybrid model sits at the crossroads of two worlds that retail has long treated separately: digital and physical. And that's precisely where both the complexity and, above all, the opportunity lie.

The figures speak for themselves.

• 62% of French online shoppers used click & collect in 2023 (Fevad)
• +23% average basket size for click & collect customers vs. home delivery (McKinsey)
• 78% of consumers say a poor click & collect experience deters them from trying again (Salesforce State of the Connected Customer, 2023)

A McKinsey study reveals that customers using click & collect spend on average 23% more than those who have items delivered to their home — notably because they enter the store and make additional purchases. This phenomenon, which English-speaking retailers call "basket uplift," is one of the strongest arguments in favor of this model.

But beware: these benefits only materialize if the experience is seamless. A failed click & collect — order not found, stock unavailable, excessive waiting time — generates a level of frustration far greater than that of a missed delivery. The customer made the trip. They made an effort. And if the promise isn't kept, the punishment is immediate and often permanent.

That's why understanding how click & collect works within an OMS isn't a technical question reserved for CIOs. It's a strategic question that engages the reputation, loyalty, and revenue of any retailer claiming to be omnichannel.

The OMS: The Logistics Brain of Omnichannel Retail

If click & collect is the promise, the OMS — Order Management System — is its guarantor. It's what transforms a purchase intention into a successful end-to-end experience. And yet, it remains too often unknown, or even underestimated, by decision-makers who confuse the OMS with a simple order management tool.

An Order Management System is a centralized technological platform that orchestrates the entire lifecycle of an order: from its creation to its delivery or collection, including stock reservation, routing to the right fulfillment point, customer communication, and returns management.

In an omnichannel context, the OMS is what enables a retailer to process an order placed on mobile, prepared in a Bordeaux store, and picked up by a customer living in Lyon — without anyone noticing, because everything works.

What distinguishes a good OMS from a basic order management system is its ability to make intelligent decisions in real time.

• Which store has the available stock closest to the customer?
• Which pickup point offers the shortest preparation time?
• How to reassign an order if a store's stock has just been depleted by an over-the-counter sale?

The OMS answers all these questions in milliseconds, without human intervention.

According to Gartner, by 2025, more than 80% of retailers operating across multiple channels will have deployed an OMS as the central layer of their technological architecture. It's not a luxury. It has become basic infrastructure, on par with an ERP or CRM. The difference is that the OMS is customer-facing — not toward accounting or marketing, but toward the shopping experience itself.

Seamless Sales Channel Integration: How the OMS Centralizes Everything

Here's the first secret — and probably the most underestimated: click & collect only works well if all sales channels speak the same language. And it's precisely the OMS's role to act as a universal translator.

Imagine a ready-to-wear retailer with 150 stores in France, an e-commerce site, a mobile app, and corners in department stores. Each channel generates orders. Each store has its own stock. Promotions vary by channel. Preparation times differ by team.

Without an OMS, it's cacophony. With a well-integrated OMS, it's a symphony — even if imperfect, it remains coherent.

Concretely, the OMS centralizes in real time:

• Stock levels by reference, by size, by color, by point of sale
• Orders being prepared and their status
• Routing rules (which store prepares which order according to which criteria)
• Automatic communications to the customer (confirmation, availability notification, reminder)
• Return and exchange data

A concrete example: Decathlon, among the most advanced retailers on this subject in France, has deployed an OMS capable of simultaneously managing click & collect orders across more than 300 points of sale.

Result: an order availability rate within 2 hours exceeding 94%, and an 18-point increase in customer satisfaction on this specific service. It's not magic. It's intelligent centralization.

What many retailers still don't know is that the OMS doesn't just read stock — it manages it. It can block a stock unit for a pending click & collect order, thus preventing an in-store salesperson from selling it to a walk-in customer. This functionality, called "stock reservation" or "soft allocation," is one of the most critical to avoid stockouts and customer disappointment.

In-Store Operations Optimization: From Preparation to Collection

The second secret — one that retailers often discover too late — is that click & collect isn't just played out in the back office. It also plays out, and perhaps especially, in the back room of a provincial store, in the hands of a salesperson juggling between checkout customers and orders to prepare.

The OMS intervenes here decisively. It doesn't just route the order to the right store: it guides the picker step by step, via a dedicated interface — often a mobile app or tablet — to locate items, package them, and place them in a designated pickup area. This workflow, called the "picking workflow," is one of the most differentiating elements between a basic OMS and a solution truly designed for physical retail.

• Reduction of average preparation time by 35 to 45% through guided instructions
• Decrease in picking errors on the order of 60% (source: Zebra Technologies study, 2023)
• Improvement in the rate of orders ready within announced deadlines, often rising from 70% to over 90%

A testimonial I regularly hear from our customers: "Before, my teams spent 20 minutes looking for an item in the stockroom. Now, the app tells them exactly where to go. We've saved time, but above all we've gained peace of mind." This isn't trivial. The stress of in-store teams facing poorly managed click & collect orders is an often-overlooked factor in professional burnout.

The OMS also manages customer communication throughout the process. As soon as the order is ready, the customer receives an automatic notification — SMS, email, push notification — with practical information for pickup. And if the order cannot be fulfilled (stockout detected too late, damaged item), the OMS automatically triggers an escalation process: proposal of an alternative store, immediate refund, or redirection to home delivery.

It’s this ability to manage exceptions — not just the standard case — that distinguishes a mature OMS from a cobbled-together system. And in retail, exceptions are the rule.

Wishibam: A Sovereign Solution Designed for French Retail

I'll be direct, because that's how I work: there are dozens of OMS solutions on the market. Some are American, powerful on paper, but unsuited to the specificities of European retail — GDPR, data hosting, integration with local systems, support in French. Others are modules of existing ERPs, added along the way, without genuine omnichannel vision.

Wishibam was designed differently. From the start, our ambition was to create a solution that respects three non-negotiable principles: data sovereignty, integration flexibility, and proximity with field teams.

• Data sovereignty: Wishibam is hosted in France, on HDS-certified infrastructure compliant with GDPR. In a context where stock, order, and customer behavior data are strategic assets, this isn’t a detail — but a fundamental guarantee for retailers who want to keep their commercial data within safe boundaries.
• Integration flexibility: Wishibam integrates with the main French ERPs (SAP, Cegid, Microsoft Dynamics), e-commerce platforms (Shopify, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud), and the leading point-of-sale systems. Integration capability reduces deployment time from months to weeks, depending on system complexity.
• Proximity and support: Wishibam accompanies its clients with French-speaking teams that know the field realities, the constraints of national retail, and the need for pragmatic solutions.

What makes me proud of Wishibam isn't the technology itself — it's what it enables field teams to do. Restoring clarity, fluidity, and sometimes even pleasure to professions that had lost them.

Tips for a Successful Transition to Omnichannel with an OMS

Taking the step toward an OMS is often where retailers hesitate most. Not from lack of conviction about the benefits — these are documented and measurable — but from fear of the project's complexity, integration cost, and internal resistance to change. These fears are legitimate. But they're surmountable, provided you follow some common-sense principles.

• Start with an audit of your current situation. Map your existing order flows, identify friction points (order loss, stock synchronization problems, wasted time), and define your success indicators. An OMS project without clear KPIs is a project without a compass.
• Involve your field teams from the start. Store managers and teams will use the tool daily; their insights on ergonomics, real workflows and problem cases are crucial and often reveal the unexpected.
• Opt for progressive deployment. Start with a pilot in 5 to 10 stores, measure and adjust, then scale. It reduces risks and helps build engagement internally.
• Don't neglect training. Short, practical training sessions, repeated over time, work better than a single seminar quickly forgotten.
• Choose a partner, not just a supplier. The difference between a successful OMS project and a disappointing one often lies in the quality of the support provided.

FAQ: How Does Click & Collect Work in an OMS?