Wish Local - for retail stores with physical locations

[anonymouscow]

Hello, I thought I would share some information about the Wish Local program.

From the Wish Local FAQ

“As a Wish Pickup partner, your store will be a pickup location for Wish orders. There are two parts to this pickup program
Pickup Now orders: Wish will initially send out 2-3 boxes of forward-deployed inventory and store it with our pickup partners. Wish customers can then purchase the items on the Wish app, and pick up the items instantly. Each box will have around 200-300 items including beauty supplies, electronic accessories, and home accessories, etc
Ship to Store orders: Wish customers can choose to send their Wish orders to the stores for pickup.”

I am assuming more people know about wish.com there is a bunch of silly stuff for sale on it usually for cheap, some things on there are a good deal, you just have to use good judgement.

Anyway, Wish pays $.50 for each order picked up at your location. Everything is done through the phone app and scanning QR code’s. Wish is also paying $25.00 a month for the first three months, so at the very least it will bring in some money. It is also paying $5.00 for referring new wish users who make a purchase and $50.00 for referring new wish local locations.

I own a small retail rock and mineral store, for a year I was just open on weekends and have recently made this my primary job, open 5 days a week. I am hoping people who use the Wish pickup will buy things I am selling and also help spread the word about my store. Initially I was against the idea of trying the Wish Local program, it seems ironic because wish.com doesn’t exactly scream “small local business” but I am still trying to make this business work and am willing to see if it will help increase traffic to the store.

Here is my referral link / code if anyone is interested in signing up as a user or wish local partner,

Referral code: zxzkppr

https://www.wish.com/local/signup?referral_code=zxzkppr

I am supposed to receive my first inventory shipment today. I will give it a little time and try to post an update with how it is going with the program.

[anonymouscow]

It might take longer than I expected for a meaningful update.

The starter kit arrived, I was under the impression it would come with inventory, apparently that arrives several weeks after the starter kit. Slight bummer because my store won’t show up as a Wish Local location until I scan in inventory. I figured customers could at least choose my location to ship to while waiting for inventory.

As I mentioned in the previous post, all the Wish Local jazz is handled through their phone apps. The welcome kit included a basic smartphone, I am not sure if it needs to be set up or not. I downloaded the Wish Local app on my personal smartphone and will probably just that if possible.

Also in the starter kit, a paper guide, but the one I received is in Spanish, they E-mailed me an English version that I still need to read. Looking at the Wish Local Facebook page their are quite a few people commenting in Spanish, maybe they were targeting other countries before the United States.

Third, a Wish Local window sticker, which will not do much good right now if my store isn’t showing up as a location.


The only other thing I did is download the Wish app to see if any other Wish Local locations show up on the map near me. It wasn’t obvious to me where to look in the app, the local pickup option is tab with a green circle with a white dot in the middle, most of the other tabs just have words, popular, recently viewed, etc.

It looks like there are 6 Wish Local pick up locations in my State, unfortunately one of them is two miles from me.

Not much else I can do til I receive inventory.

[anonymouscow]

Greetings, I am not sure if there is any interest in reading about this, but here is an update.

——

So far I have had 8 ship to store orders, paid $.50 per order = $4.00.
Two week bonus (bonus paid every two weeks for first 3 months) = $12.50

19 ship to store orders either waiting for pickup or on the way here.

One person picking up a Wish order also spent money in the store.

——-

The process for checking in orders and handing them to the customer is straightforward. I am able to use the Wish Local app on my smartphone so I have not used the phone Wish sent. Scan a QR code on the package and scan a QR code on the customer’s phone, so pretty simple.

The reason people are choosing the ship to store option is a discount in shipping cost ( I’ve been told a dollar off shipping or free shipping).

Wish is supposed to be sending 200-300 items so customers can choose the option for same day pickup. So far they have not been able to give me an ETA when those are supposed to arrive.

I assume the same day pickup option is the main reason for this program. All the ship to store orders have arrived in individual packages, so I don’t really see how Wish would save any money shipping to a store vs shipping to the customer directly. Maybe lots of people say they never receive the package and this way there is verification.

I am hoping even if people picking up Wish orders do not spend money in the store, they might tell others about it. The store is still not well known about, so I hope this will help get the word out (rock and mineral store so a pretty niche market).

——-

Here is my referral code / link again, $5.00 for new Wish users who make a purchase (doesn’t have to be ship to store) customers will receive a discount on their first order with the code. $50.00 for referring people who sign up to be a Wish Local pick up location (must have physical business location).  Sales in the store are not where they need to be so I am looking for any means for extra income.

Referral code: zxzkppr

https://www.wish.com/local/signup?referral_code=zxzkppr

[anonymouscow]

The “same day local pickup” items from Wish arrived in 4 large boxes, maybe around 140 SKUs, 2-4 of each item.

For the second 2 week period earning are $22.00 total. $12.50 for the second of six bonus payments, and $9.50 for 19 orders at $.50 each.

I have not been keeping track of “ship to store” vs “same day pickup” but there have been some of each.

I know $.50 per pickup isn’t much, but it only takes about 30 seconds to scan a QR code and hand the person their order. A few people have made additional purchases, most people have said they know of someone who would like the store (rocks and crystals) so I am still hoping this will lead to more sales in one way or another.

One hiccup “Due to the recent coronavirus outbreak, China has implemented government workforce restrictions which significantly limit Wish’s warehouse operations. It is our priority that customers receive their orders in a timely manner. Therefore, we are temporarily pausing new Ship to Store orders so that customers do not experience any excessive delay.”

[AMandM]

This is not applicable to me since I don't have a store, but it's interesting.  Do you think it will still be worthwhile once you're not getting the $25/month anymore? Only if it leads to customers buying stuff in your store, maybe? It sounds like you have to maintain inventory, keep track of incoming orders, and provide storage, all for only 50 cents. What happens if a customer fails to pick up an order, or wants to make a return?

[anonymouscow]

This is not applicable to me since I don't have a store, but it's interesting.  Do you think it will still be worthwhile once you're not getting the $25/month anymore? Only if it leads to customers buying stuff in your store, maybe? It sounds like you have to maintain inventory, keep track of incoming orders, and provide storage, all for only 50 cents. What happens if a customer fails to pick up an order, or wants to make a return?

I will probably continue with it even after the $25.00 a month ends.

I have space for storage, right now I have seven, three cubic foot boxes of “pick up today” inventory, so that part is not an issue.

Wish handles any returns, so I do not have to deal with that aspect.

Customer’s not picking up orders, that part I am not sure on, I imagine it wouldn’t be too big of an issue, the only two options I can think of would be the items get added to my inventory or the package is sent back to Wish.

The incoming orders are easy to deal with, a code is scanned on the package and when the customer comes in I scan a code on their phone and hand them the package. People here for Wish items usually walk into the store with their phone out, by the time they reach the counter I usually have the app open and ready to scan, so it goes pretty quickly, both scanning in orders and giving the order to the customer.

The last two, two week payouts were $22.00 and $28.50, so without the bonus that’s 51 pickups for the month x $0.50. Some of these are multiple pickups in one trip or someone who has been in before, but the majority are people who have not been in the store before.

I see the primary benefit as just making people aware of the store. I have not kept track (I probably should) but maybe 20% of people have also made a purchase in the store. I give my card to each person picking up an order and just about everyone has said that they know someone who would be interested in the store.

Hopefully it will be a good thing if I am ever too busy to deal with Wish along with regular customers.

Right now my only small concern is that cheap Chinese products don’t exactly go hand in hand with “small local business”. At this point I am still struggling with advertising, sales, etc, so I am looking for anything that will help still!

[anonymouscow]

I am still doing the Wish thing, they added the option to deliver orders for $4.00 per delivery, the choice in distances you can choose are 3/6/9/12 miles. I have had a dozen or so orders. I am up to $344.00 total earned in 8 months. Nothing spectacular but in my case I need every penny and it helps drive some business to the store.

This is my referral code:
Download the Wish app and use promo code zxzkppr on your first order to get up to 50% off! Get the app here: https://www.wish.com/local/i?r=zxzkpp

I am sure with the virus and mandatory masks that they are not helping with in person retail sales, if anyone uses my referral code it would be greatly appreciated, I get a small commission and you get a discount on your order.