Well known high street presence in the South East, Evans Cycles have taken the notion of clicks and mortar to a different level with a new service that brings together their online and high street services.

The new, and free, ‘ship to store’ service allows customers to place their order online but have the goods delivered to their nearest Evans store, rather than home. You might ask what the point of ordering online is when you’ll just end up having to go into the store anyway, but Evans believe that there’s a demand for people to be able to browse their full range and shop at any time of day, but still be able to try, exchange or even return items without having to take delivery of them at home. Evans also see this as an attractive service for those ordering bulky items, such as entire bikes, that might well otherwise end up at the postal depot.

Most of us online shoppers have probably had the experience where you open your delivery package with great glee only to find that the item inside isn’t quite right, it wasn’t quite what you imagined, or it doesn’t fit, and you’re faced with the hassle of sending it back. So we can imagine that some will like the fact that you can combine the instantaneous aspect of online shopping and the try-it-first approach of going to the shops.

Personally, we think we’ll still be parcel junkies, but we imagine that Evans have done their homework and there’s plenty of people out there interested in the new service. In any case it simply means more choice for the customer, which can’t be bad.

Find out more from Evans’ website and let us know what you think on the forum.