Curbside Pickup: A Way to Make Grocery Shopping Easier and Fresher

Curbside pickup, from a retailer’s point of view, as well as from the consumer side, is one of the most flexible and convenient forms of retail logistics. It combines the low fulfillment costs of in-store buying with the ease of online shopping. Customers simply select their purchases, reserve a collection time, then pick up their goods. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.

Previously, glitches in this system could cause a headache for some retailers. Uncertainty over time of arrival and the location of customers’ vehicles would make it difficult to schedule the collection and packaging of goods. Store car parks would be jammed to overflowing at high traffic times, as customers failed to arrive when scheduled to.

From the customer’s point of view, finding a designated parking space, having to check-in or call the retailer, then wait for purchases to be brought, negated many of the benefits of booking a collection in the first place.

Fortunately, Delivery Solutions have developed brand new innovations to eradicate these issues. We’ve put together a Curbside Kit which makes the process run smoothly. It includes:

• Notifications of customer arrival within 15, 10 or 5 minutes, so you’re always prepared.
• Geo-fencing to tell staff exactly where the customer is parked.
• A range of interfaces to suit each use case including an eCommerce web API, a web-based dashboard, and our brand-new Curbside Kit Software Development Kit (SDK) for retailer mobile apps.

These developments give you the flexibility to create exactly the service you want, with options for both web-based and mobile-based access points (including the creation of dashboard apps for tablets).

Curbside Pickup – the Best of Both Worlds (Cost and Convenience)

We’ve designed our new curbside offerings to optimize the process for all parties. The benefits to both retailers and consumers are many:

For Retailers:

•   A larger volume of sales per day.
•   More repeat business from regular customers.
•   A better flow of store traffic, with shorter pickup slots.
•   More trackable customer arrivals.
•   Fewer errors, and better communication.
•   Better performance metrics, so you can see what works.

For Customers:

•   A quicker, more reliable service (we aim for close to ZERO waiting time!)
•   Less uncertainty around their order’s progress.
•   Better communication with the store.
•   More options for checking order progress.
•   Access via mobile (iOS or Android)

The Fastest-Growing Retail Fulfillment Sector

According to Statista, COVID-19 has accelerated the growth of curbside pickup globally. In fact, it’s become the fastest-growing type of retailer fulfillment. In the US, curbside pickup saw a 190% increase (almost a doubling) in popularity since the start of the pandemic. This is not anticipated to diminish significantly, even in the post-COVID world.

Seize this moment to develop or expand your curbside pickup operation and take advantage of this radical change in how people shop. Delivery Solutions will work with you to create the perfect curbside pickup offering, considering your operations scale, geographical reach, and current eCommerce set-up.

Delivery Solutions orchestrates fulfillment experiences for enterprise retailers, supplying flexible optionality for consumers and priming merchants for innovation at scale.

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