Don’t kick curbside to the curb. Here’s why.

Safety. How many alcohol wipes does it take to kill Covid off a cereal box?  Did you hold your breath through a crowded sidewalk?  We’ve all formed some level of hyper-hygienic habits during the pandemic especially when running errands for bare essentials.  For example, 77% of consumers say that “going forward they will seek out information on the type of health and safety standards and processes businesses have in place before visiting them.”⁴.  Perhaps getting the vaccine helped some folks mitigate the obsession with cleanliness.  But even after a successful vaccine, only 50% of consumer survey participants said they would visit physical stores⁵ and 87% of consumers say businesses should continue to offer options like curbside pickup that limits the need for in-person visits.”⁶,⁷.  Covid or not, most consumers want to be able to stick to their e-commerce routines.  In order to retain customers and avoid losing sales volume, retailers, grocery stores, and QSRs/restaurants ought to continue honoring consumer preferences and maintain multiple off-premise shopping options.  At the very least, brands should think about their image and how their safety measures, or the lack of, come across to their audiences.

Convenience.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics’s latest American Time Use Survey⁸ results show that the average full-time employee works about 8 hours per work day.  In addition to work, both men and women spend about 2 hours doing household chores while parents add another hour or so of childcare.  Somehow people fit in about 5 hours of leisure activities throughout the day such as watching TV, socializing, and exercising.  In short, people are busy all the time.  Busy people are drawn to creating more efficiencies in their lives.  For example, a parent can drop off their kid at school and grab a hot breakfast via BOPIS/BOPC on their commute to work without missing a beat, worrying about being late, or sacrificing the quality of their meal.  BOPIS/BOPC has become a lifestyle that empowers consumers to have more agency over their time. 

Price.  Prices of goods have been going up lately due to a variety of reasons including shortages in labor and materials as well as high consumer demand⁹.  Margins are becoming slimmer for brands paying 20% or more in marketplace fees to delivery service providers (DSP)¹⁰.  BOPIS/BOPC removes shipping or delivery fees from the equation making it a must-have cost-effective option for both brands and customers¹¹.  In fact, big brands like Starbucks and Chili’s have been investing to improve their pickup operations because they noticed their customers prefer it over delivery citing exactly this as a reason¹².  With third-party fees gone, prices can stay as low as possible for customers and margins can stay optimal for brands.  

Profit.  The “do-or-die” pickup operations adopted during the pandemic evolved into a long-term online business strategy for many brands, especially retailers¹³.  Brands are realizing that the massive increase in their e-commerce pickup sales isn’t a coincidence.  For example, grocery brands offering pickup increased average basket sizes by nearly three-fold¹⁴.  More importantly, brands are realizing that it’s not just about putting a pickup process in place.  Unshockingly, the pickup experience has to be good.  Research shows that just one bad in-person or online experience will drive customers away and make them over 60% less likely to return¹⁵.  What’s worse, half of the time they are likely to tell others about their bad experience¹⁶, which can spread quickly and even block new customers.  By contrast, a positive experience is likely to increase repeat customers by 90% and in-store or online sales by 60%¹⁷.  Thus brands with the best pickup experiences can obtain recurring loyalty and revenue.