Dive Brief:

• Nearly a third (32%) of shoppers this past holiday season took advantage of buy online, pick-up in-store options, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) Holiday Consumer Purchasing Trends Study. The ICSC surveyed 1,014 shoppers from Dec. 28 to Dec. 30.

• A great majority (69%) who used that service this season went on to buy other things while they were picking up their orders, the survey found.

• The survey also found 36% of shoppers using those types of services, known as "click-and-collect," made another purchase in an adjacent store at the time of pick up.

• Another poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week for CNBC by market research firm InfoScout found that nearly half (49%) of those surveyed tried the service out last year.

Dive Insight:

A StellaService study last year got a lot of press with its results that in-store pickup isn’t that much of a time-saver for consumers. But it turns out that, for shoppers, it’s not so much about saving time. A study by Forrester Research found that most shoppers like in-store pickup because it saves on shipping costs, allows them to find what they want online without searching store shelves, and makes their purchases available that day. For some, it’s also an opportunity to pay cash for an online purchase.

For retailers, expanding in-store pickup can wreak havoc on inventory management. They must either carry the merchandise in-store—which can be trickier in less densely populated areas where they may not have as many locations—or have them extremely accessible. In turn, stocking up to have items on hand can lead to bulking up on too much inventory.

For a long time, retailers selling items online that weren’t available in store couldn't take returns of those items in physical locations. But returns have emerged as one of the most important options to consumers. Some 70% say they prefer to go to a store to return or exchange a holiday gift by and large because it’s more convenient, with just 9% preferring an online return and 22% having no preference, according to a study from mobile platform Retale.

Although in-store pickup itself can be an expensive option for retailers because of the logistics that it takes, it may be a more cost-effective way to please customers than same-day delivery, which is dominated by startups buoyed by investment funding. Omnichannel solutions platform Curbside found that even among customers opting for curbside pickup, 15% of the time they end up going into the store for other things.

For retailers, providing click-and-collect services takes a good network of stores, and could increasingly be a factor in deciding which stores to close, especially at a time when stores are increasingly being leveraged as mini-warehouses and fulfillment centers.