Curbside Pickup: What Is It and How Does It Work?

Curbside pickup is a store-fulfilment service that lets customers order remotely and collect at a designated location without entering the store. For retailers, it is not simply a handoff at the car park: it is a coordinated workflow spanning inventory reservation, picking, staging, pickup-slot capacity, arrival visibility, associate assignment and order verification.

When executed well, curbside pickup gives customers a reliable alternative to home delivery while helping retailers use stores as local fulfilment hubs, manage last-mile cost-to-serve and maintain service-level adherence across an omnichannel fulfilment network.

What Is Curbside Pickup?

Curbside pickup is a fulfilment method in which a customer places an order remotely, selects a store or collection point, and collects the order from a designated curbside or car-park location. Store staff bring the prepared order to the customer’s vehicle or hand it over at the pickup point.

Unlike home delivery, the customer completes the final journey. Unlike standard in-store pickup, the customer typically does not need to enter the store.

At scale, curbside pickup depends on a connected store-fulfilment operation:

1. The order is captured and routed to the appropriate location.
2. Inventory is confirmed and reserved.
3. Associates pick, pack and stage the order.
4. The customer receives a realistic collection promise and arrival instructions.
5. The store receives an arrival alert or estimated arrival time.
6. An associate is assigned to complete the handoff.
7. The order is verified, handed over and marked complete.

Curbside pickup is commonly referred to as a form of BOPIS—buy online, pick up in store—or click and collect. The distinction is that curbside pickup specifies the handoff location: the customer remains outside the store.

Curbside Pickup vs. In-Store Pickup

Understanding the difference between curbside pickup and in-store pickup helps retailers design the right customer promise, store workflow and labour model.

Factor	Curbside Pickup	In-Store Pickup
Customer location	Customer waits at a designated curbside or parking location, often in their vehicle.	Customer enters the store and collects from a service desk, locker or collection counter.
Customer convenience	No need to navigate the store or queue indoors.	Requires the customer to park, enter the store and locate the pickup point.
Staff handoff	An associate retrieves and delivers the order to the customer.	An associate hands over the order at a counter, or a locker may enable self-service collection.
Contact level	Minimal, depending on verification requirements.	Usually involves direct interaction with store staff.
Operational complexity	Requires arrival coordination, bay management and rapid associate dispatch.	Usually simpler to operate but may create counter queues and in-store congestion.
Technology requirements	Benefits from arrival notifications, ETA visibility, task assignment and customer communications.	Requires order-ready notifications and collection verification.
Cost-to-serve	Can require more labour per handoff, depending on layout and order volume.	May have lower handoff labour requirements but can increase in-store congestion.

How Does Curbside Pickup Work?

Customers often arrive without the store knowing they are there, then call, text or enter the store to ask for their order. That creates avoidable delays and pulls associates away from picking, replenishment or other customer-facing work.

A scalable curbside pickup workflow gives every order a clear status—from placement to completion—and triggers the next task at the right time.

1. Online Checkout and Order Capture

The customer places an order through an ecommerce site, mobile app, marketplace or call centre and selects curbside pickup as the fulfilment method.

During checkout, the retailer should present:

• Eligible pickup locations
• Available pickup windows
• Order cut-off times
• Product or category restrictions
• Collection instructions
• Contact and vehicle details where required

The order should then be routed to the location that can fulfil it while meeting inventory, labour and capacity constraints.

2. Picking, Packing and Staging

Once the order reaches the assigned store, associates confirm inventory and begin picking and packing.

For reliable fulfilment, this stage requires more than a point-of-sale notification. Teams need accurate inventory visibility, a clear pick task, substitution rules and a defined packing process. Grocery and pharmacy operations may also require temperature-controlled staging, identity checks or regulated-product verification.

The store should record whether the order is:

• In picking
• Partially available
• Awaiting substitution approval
• Packed
• Staged
• Ready for collection

3. Prioritising and Scheduling

When an order is ready, the retailer notifies the customer with the pickup location, instructions and collection window.

Available slots should reflect actual pickup-slot capacity, not only customer preference. Capacity planning should account for:

• Available picking and handoff labour
• Staging space
• Dedicated parking bays
• Product type and handling requirements
• Expected arrival variability
• Peak-hour demand
• Existing delivery and in-store fulfilment commitments

Once a customer is en route, ETA-based workflows can help the store prioritise orders likely to arrive next. This reduces the risk of preparing temperature-sensitive orders too early while ensuring associates are ready when the customer reaches the pickup area.

4. Arrival Notification and Order Handoff

On arrival, the customer notifies the retailer through an app, web link, SMS reply, phone call or store kiosk. Geofencing and ETA updates can also provide the store with earlier arrival visibility where customers opt in.

The system or store manager assigns the handoff task to an available associate. The associate retrieves the order, verifies the customer or collection code where required, completes the handoff and marks the order as collected.

The final status should be recorded promptly. This gives operations teams a reliable record of:

• Arrival time
• Handoff time
• Customer wait time
• Order accuracy
• Exceptions or substitutions
• No-shows and cancelled collections

Benefits of Curbside Pickup for Retailers and Customers

Curbside pickup can help retailers fulfil digital orders locally while giving customers more control over how and when they collect. It can also reduce the need for a retailer-operated last-mile delivery journey, provided store labour, staging capacity and customer wait times are controlled.

Faster Local Fulfilment

Orders can be picked, packed and made ready for collection within hours when inventory, labour and pickup capacity are available. For customers with urgent needs, curbside pickup can be more immediate than waiting for a delivery route.

According to Grant Thornton Australia’s 2026 Retail Report, 65% of Australian consumers expect to collect a click-and-collect order within 60 minutes or less, while 22% expect collection within 30 minutes or less. These expectations make order readiness and pickup-slot accuracy core operational requirements rather than customer-service extras.

Lower Last-Mile Delivery Spend

When customers collect their own orders, retailers can avoid some driver, fuel and vehicle costs associated with home delivery. The net saving depends on picking labour, staging, customer-service contacts, parking capacity and the cost of handling exceptions.

Curbside pickup does not automatically reduce operating costs. Retailers should assess cost-to-serve across each fulfilment channel, including labour minutes per order, technology costs, packaging, parking infrastructure, cancellations and customer-support demand.

Better Customer Experience

Clear pickup windows, accurate readiness updates and short arrival-to-handoff times create a more predictable experience. The operational goal is straightforward: the order should be ready when the customer arrives, and the customer should not need to call, queue or enter the store to find it.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index 2026 Retail and Consumer Shipping Study found that ease of the pickup process scored 85 out of 100 among general-merchandise retailers and 87 out of 100 among specialty retailers. The same study gave pickup-order fulfilment accuracy a score of 84 among general-merchandise retailers and 86 among specialty retailers, reinforcing the importance of both convenience and order correctness.

Stronger Inventory Turnover

Fulfilling online orders from local stores can move available stock closer to demand. This works only when inventory availability is accurate and the order management process prevents the same stock from being promised to multiple customers.

For retailers, store inventory visibility is central to preventing cancelled orders, substitutions and lost customer trust.

Flexible Omnichannel Fulfilment

Curbside pickup gives customers another option alongside home delivery, ship-from-store and in-store shopping. It can also help retailers maintain service when delivery capacity is constrained or when customers prefer to avoid delivery fees.

Pickup remains a meaningful ecommerce channel. Brick Meets Click and Mercatus reported that U.S. online grocery pickup accounted for 37% of online grocery sales in April 2025. While fulfilment preferences vary by category and market, the data highlights pickup’s continued role in grocery omnichannel operations.

Potentially Lower Delivery-Related Emissions

Curbside pickup may reduce retailer-operated delivery mileage by shifting the final journey to the customer. The overall environmental impact depends on customer travel patterns, store location, order consolidation and the delivery alternative being replaced.

Key Features of an Effective Curbside Pickup Operation

Reliable curbside pickup requires a defined operating model, not simply a checkout option. Retailers need connected systems, standard operating procedures, physical store readiness and measurable performance management.

Real-Time Inventory Visibility

Customers should only be able to select pickup when inventory is available or can be replenished within the promised window. Inventory data must be connected to order routing, picking and customer communication workflows.

Capacity-Aware Time Slot Management

Pickup windows should be based on actual fulfilment capacity. Stores need to account for pick-and-pack lead times, associate availability, order size, staging space, parking bays and other service commitments before making slots available.

Clear Customer Communications

Customers should receive updates when an order is received, being prepared, delayed, ready for pickup and completed. Arrival instructions should explain exactly where to park, how to check in and what identification or collection code is required.

Arrival and ETA Visibility

Customer arrival signals help staff prepare for the next handoff. Retailers can use app-based arrival notifications, SMS links, phone calls, web check-in pages or optional geofencing to improve timing without creating barriers for customers who do not use an app.

Task Assignment for Store Associates

Once a customer arrives, the handoff task should be assigned to an available associate. Manual coordination through phone calls, walkie-talkies or ad hoc store announcements becomes difficult to manage at volume.

Exception Management

Stores need documented workflows for substitutions, damaged products, late arrivals, no-shows, cancelled orders, identity verification and system outages. Handling exceptions consistently protects customer trust and reduces avoidable service contacts.

Performance Analytics

Retailers should track the metrics that reveal whether curbside pickup is working operationally:

• Order-ready time
• On-time-ready percentage
• Arrival-to-handoff time
• Pickup wait time by store and daypart
• Order accuracy
• Substitution and cancellation rates
• Labour minutes per order
• Pickup-slot utilisation
• No-show volume
• Customer satisfaction and complaint volume

How to Implement a Seamless Curbside Pickup Process

Build the Right Technology Infrastructure

A scalable curbside operation should connect the following systems:

• Ecommerce platform: Captures the order, pickup location and selected collection time.
• Order management system: Routes orders and manages fulfilment status.
• Inventory and warehouse systems: Confirm availability and reserve stock.
• Point of sale: Supports store-level processing and handoff confirmation.
• Customer-notification tools: Send ready, en-route, arrival and exception updates.
• Dispatch or orchestration platform: Prioritises tasks, manages capacity and coordinates pickup with delivery operations.
• Analytics layer: Tracks wait time, readiness, cost-to-serve, exceptions and SLA performance.

Create Store-Level Standard Operating Procedures

Store associates need clear procedures for every order state:

1. Accept and acknowledge the fulfilment task.
2. Pick and pack items accurately.
3. Escalate unavailable items and manage substitutions.
4. Stage orders in the correct location and temperature zone.
5. Mark orders ready only when they can be handed over.
6. Respond to customer arrival notifications.
7. Verify and hand over the order.
8. Record exceptions and close the order.

Teams also need escalation paths for peak periods, delayed picking, system outages, late-arriving customers, substitutions and damaged products.

Optimise the Physical Pickup Experience

The customer experience should be explicit from checkout through handoff. Retailers should provide:

• Clear pickup location and parking instructions
• Dedicated, accessible pickup bays where possible
• Visible signs that customers can read before parking
• A simple arrival-notification method that does not rely solely on an app
• Updates when an order is being prepared, ready or delayed
• Contact options for customers who need support
• Clear policies for late collection, no-shows and delegated collection

? Turn stores into dependable fulfilment hubs

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How Technology Optimises Curbside Pickup Operations

Timeliness is central to curbside pickup. Customers collecting frozen groceries, fresh food or prepared meals expect the order to be ready at the promised time. Store teams need the same visibility: which orders are ready, which customers are en route, which have arrived and which require attention.

The challenge is that pickup demand is variable. A store may receive several customers at once, even when they selected different collection windows. Without automation, staff must coordinate orders through phone calls, manual updates and ad hoc task assignment.

A dispatch management platform can bring structure to that workflow by connecting demand, capacity, ETA and resource availability.

Flexible Pickup Time Slot Management

Offering pickup windows without accounting for operational capacity can create congestion rather than convenience.

Dynamic time-slot management helps retailers offer realistic pickup windows based on:

• Store operating hours
• Pick-and-pack lead time
• Associate availability
• Staging capacity
• Pickup-bay availability
• Order size and handling requirements
• Existing delivery and fulfilment commitments

For organisations running pickup and home delivery together, Locus can help orchestrate demand across stores, resources and customer promises. Rather than treating each pickup order as an isolated task, operations teams can prioritise it alongside delivery commitments, store workload and SLA requirements.

Real-Time Notifications and Communication

A customer who does not know whether an order is ready is more likely to call or enter the store. A store that does not know a customer has arrived cannot prepare a timely handoff.

Automated status updates reduce this uncertainty. Retailers can notify customers when an order is:

• Received
• Being prepared
• Awaiting substitution approval
• Ready for pickup
• Delayed
• Due for collection
• Completed

With real-time order visibility, associates can receive a task at the right point in the customer journey rather than reacting only after the customer has been waiting at the curb.

ETA-Based Prioritisation

ETA signals allow retailers to sequence final preparation and handoff tasks based on likely customer arrival. This is particularly important for chilled, frozen, fresh and prepared products, where orders should not remain in staging longer than necessary.

Automated Task Assignment

Automation can direct pickup tasks to available associates based on workload, proximity, store rules and order priority. This reduces the reliance on manual coordination and creates a clearer audit trail for order handling.

In 2026, pickup performance is increasingly judged by more than whether an order is eventually handed over. Retailers need to measure whether it was ready on time, accurate, easy to collect and delivered within the promised service window. The ACSI’s January 2026 study gave speed of pickup-order readiness a score of 83 out of 100 among general-merchandise retailers, showing that readiness speed remains a material customer-experience factor.

Curbside Pickup Beyond the Pandemic

Curbside pickup is now an omnichannel fulfilment option rather than a pandemic-specific service. Customers continue to value the ability to choose between delivery, in-store shopping and local collection based on urgency, cost and convenience.

The long-term outlook remains positive. The American Customer Satisfaction Index 2026 Retail and Consumer Shipping Study projects that BOPIS sales will grow by 13.6% annually through 2030. For retailers, that growth increases the need to treat collection as a managed fulfilment channel with measurable capacity, labour and customer-service requirements.

Long-Term Adoption Considerations

• Customer demand is shaped by convenience, accurate availability and collection speed.
• Pickup should be integrated with delivery, ship-from-store and in-store shopping rather than operated as a separate silo.
• Store-level capacity must be actively managed during peak periods.
• Technology can improve visibility, but standard operating procedures remain essential.
• Retailers need store-level performance data to identify where wait times, late-ready orders or excessive labour are affecting profitability.

For retailers building a connected collection and delivery model, this guide to omnichannel fulfillment provides additional planning considerations.

Future Innovations

Curbside operations are increasingly using automation and predictive workflows to improve execution, including:

• AI-supported demand forecasting for labour and inventory planning
• Predictive order readiness based on picking workload and customer pickup windows
• ETA and geofencing signals to anticipate arrival
• Dynamic allocation of associates across picking, staging and handoff tasks
• Smart lockers where product type, security and temperature requirements allow
• Unified orchestration of pickup and last-mile delivery operations

Why Choose Locus for Curbside Pickup Orchestration?

Curbside pickup is one part of a broader omnichannel fulfilment operation. Retailers need to manage it alongside home delivery, store fulfilment, delivery fleets, labour availability and customer service commitments.

Locus helps retailers bring these workflows together through intelligent dispatch and order orchestration. With real-time order visibility, capacity-aware scheduling, ETA-based prioritisation and automated communication, operations teams can make better decisions about which orders to prepare, when to assign associates and how to protect on-time handoff performance.

Locus helps retailers gain visibility into:

• Order readiness and SLA adherence
• Customer arrival and dwell time
• Associate workload and task allocation
• Pickup-slot utilisation
• Exceptions, no-shows and cancellations
• Cost-to-serve across pickup and delivery channels

The objective is not simply a faster handoff. It is predictable execution: orders ready on time, customers informed throughout the journey and store teams able to meet pickup SLAs without disrupting other operations.

? Orchestrate pickup and delivery in one operation

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Final Takeaway

Curbside pickup is more than bringing an online order to a customer’s vehicle. At enterprise scale, it is a store-fulfilment workflow that requires accurate inventory, realistic pickup promises, prepared associates, arrival visibility and fast, verified handoffs.

Retailers that treat curbside pickup as a connected operational process—not a manual add-on—are better positioned to reduce customer wait times, protect product quality, meet service-level commitments and manage fulfilment cost-to-serve.