Action expands click & collect trial to Belgium

Non-food discounter Action is to expand its click & collect trial from France to Belgium, in a response to the Covid-19 crisis.

No international implementation

In five Action stores in or near Antwerp (Antwerp itself, Deurne, Kontich, Mortsel and Wommelgem), customers can collect purchases they made online. If an order is made before 17h, it is ready for pick-up the following day. Customers can choose when they come to collect their order, which they only have to pay in the store. However, the trial is limited to a small selection of Action’s product range.

The expansion to Belgium follows the success of the trial in a few French stores, which in itself was a reaction to the chain’s stores remaining closed during the Covid lockdowns: the retailer wants to have an alternative should such a thing happen again. “If a second wave strikes, we can still be of use for our customers in this way”, the chain commented.

The expansion to Belgium does not (necessarily) mean that Action plans to implement the scheme internationally, a spokesperson told RetailDetail: “This test has a practical background. Due to strict measures in the French region in which we are testing, we thought it would be more useful to move the planned expansion from a wider French area to Belgium. The possibilities to click & collect are therefore the same in the five Antwerp stores as they are in the French pilot stores, and do not say anything about a continuation or even international expansion.”