Curbside Pickups: What are They and How do They Work?

Locus empowers retailers to deliver seamless curbside experiences through industry-leading automation and real-time order intelligence, trusted by 360+ enterprises worldwide.

As a retail operations leader, you’ve likely seen the surge in curbside pickup requests—but also the challenges: staff coordination, scheduling, and customer wait times. How can you streamline fulfillment while keeping costs down? This article explores best practices and tech solutions for retailers facing these exact challenges.

Rather than waiting in store queues or anticipating home deliveries, customers can receive their orders quickly and conveniently. This represents the customers’ newfound preference towards curbside pickup, and the numbers reflect it.

A survey of 1,000 global shoppers stated that curbside deliveries and pickups rose by 190 percentage points in North America after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This trend underscores the urgent need for retailers to adopt efficient curbside solutions.

Let’s learn more about curbside pickups and how it works.

What Is a Curbside Pickup?

Curbside pickup is a fulfillment service where customers collect their orders from a designated local store or warehouse curb instead of getting them delivered to their doorstep.

The best part of this method is that customers need not go inside the store or get out of their vehicles to collect their orders. The store staff places their order in the car space of the customer.

Since this COVID-19 pandemic, many smaller retail businesses have started to adopt this curbside pickup for its convenience and low-contact nature. And this has become an emerging fulfillment model to enhance their omnichannel presence.

Curbside Pickup vs. In-Store Pickup: Key Differences

Understanding the differences between curbside and in-store pickup helps retailers choose the right fulfillment strategy and helps customers select their preferred option.

Factor	Curbside Pickup	In-Store Pickup
Customer Convenience	Stay in vehicle, no parking hassles	Must enter store, potential wait times
Contact Level	Minimal contact, safer option	Direct interaction with staff
Speed	Faster, no navigation through store	May take longer due to store layout
Operational Cost	Higher staff coordination needed	Lower operational complexity

What Are the Benefits of Curbside Pickup

Curbside pickup gives retailers a fast and cost-saving way to fulfil online orders while serving both digital and walk-in buyers. It shortens delivery time, cuts last-mile expense, and lets stores act as mini fulfilment hubs.

Pros and Cons of Curbside Pickup

Advantages:

• Enhanced customer convenience – No need to leave vehicle or navigate store
• Reduced operational costs – Lower delivery expenses compared to home delivery
• Faster fulfillment – Same-day or even hourly pickup options
• Improved safety – Minimal contact reduces health risks
• Better inventory turnover – Direct fulfillment from store locations

Disadvantages:

• Staff coordination complexity – Requires precise timing and communication
• Weather dependency – Outdoor operations affected by conditions
• Limited impulse purchases – Customers don’t browse additional items
• Technology requirements – Need for scheduling and tracking systems

Key Benefits Include:

• Faster fulfilment
  
  Orders are prepared and ready for pickup within hours. This immediacy improves convenience, encourages repeat purchases, and helps retailers compete with same-day delivery options without adding logistics complexity.
• Lower logistics spend
  
  Because customers collect their own orders, retailers spend less on vehicle runs, drivers, and fuel. This also cuts the number of failed deliveries, keeping margins healthy for both small and large chains.
• Better customer experience
  
  Flexible pickup slots and contact-free exchanges create a predictable, safe, and time-saving experience. Customers can choose when to collect orders, avoiding missed deliveries or long wait times.
• Stronger inventory turnover
  
  By fulfilling online orders directly from stores, retailers clear stock faster and maintain better inventory accuracy. This reduces overstocking, prevents lost sales, and enables more responsive replenishment cycles.
• Lower emissions
  
  Fewer last-mile trips mean lower fuel use and reduced urban congestion. Curbside pickup supports sustainability goals by cutting delivery-related emissions while still offering speed and convenience to customers.

When integrated with intelligent scheduling and routing tools, curbside pickup helps retailers deliver a smooth, contact-free experience while keeping operational costs and labour needs under control.

Expert Tip: In my experience, retailers who automate curbside scheduling see up to 30% faster order turnaround and higher customer satisfaction scores.

How Do Curbside Pickups Work?

Many customers call, text or get into stores to inform the store executives of their arrival. Issues like these make curbside pickups more inconvenient. If your business needs to get curbside pickup right and avoid these issues, firstly, you should know how curbside pickups work.

Online checkout and purchase

The customer orders their items online or through a call, and the retail business receives this order through its online ordering system.

During the checkout process, customers select a convenient store outlet for curbside pickup.

Picking and packing

The customer’s order reaches the Point of Sale of a store.

Once the business (the store where the order has been assigned) receives the notification, they check if the inventory is in stock and start packing it.

Prioritizing and scheduling

Once the order is ready, the business notifies the customer about the exact location and time of the curbside pickup.

Also, the business gets other details like pickup preferences and contact mode after reaching the curb. With all these details, the store prioritizes and schedules the curbside pickup for the order.

Orders picked up

Finally, the store staff places the order in the car or hands it off to the customer. Sometimes, customers can move into stores to collect their orders.

Who Offers Curbside Pickup?

Curbside pickup is now a mainstream fulfillment model across multiple industries. It’s primarily used by retailers, grocers, pharmacies, restaurants, and quick-service brands looking to offer convenience and reduce delivery strain.

Industry / Business Type	How They Use Curbside Pickup
Retail and E-commerce Brands	Customers order online and collect items from nearby stores for convenience and faster fulfillment.
Grocery Chains	Enable same-day pickup for fresh or frozen goods with proper temperature control.
Restaurants and Cafés	Provide quick takeaway options without dine-in wait times.
Pharmacies and Healthcare Providers	Offer contactless pickup of prescriptions and medical products safely.
Big-box and Home Improvement Stores	Let customers collect heavy, bulky, or time-sensitive products with ease.

By integrating curbside pickup into their omnichannel strategies, these businesses increase convenience, improve store traffic, and deliver faster service without additional last-mile costs.

Why Offer Curbside Pickup to Your Customers

Offering curbside pickup helps businesses meet customer expectations for speed, flexibility, and safety while improving operational efficiency. It bridges online convenience with in-store immediacy, creating a smoother shopping experience.

Key Reasons to Offer Curbside Pickup

• Customer convenience: Shoppers can collect purchases on their schedule without waiting in line.
• Faster fulfillment: Enables same-day or even one-hour pickup for urgent orders.
• Cost savings: Reduces shipping and delivery costs for both customers and retailers.
• Higher loyalty: Real-time updates, short wait times, and reliable service increase satisfaction.
• Omnichannel growth: Expands fulfillment options while maximizing store utilization.

For retailers, curbside pickup isn’t just a service upgrade — it’s a competitive necessity that strengthens customer relationships and drives repeat sales.

How to Implement a Seamless Curbside Pickup Process

Successfully implementing curbside pickup requires careful planning, the right technology, and well-trained staff. Here are the essential steps:

Technology Infrastructure

• Implement order management systems with real-time inventory tracking
• Deploy mobile apps or web platforms for customer notifications
• Set up automated scheduling and time slot management

Staff Training and Communication

• Train staff on order preparation and customer communication protocols
• Establish clear procedures for order verification and handoff
• Create backup plans for peak times and system failures

Customer Experience Optimization

• Design clear signage and designated pickup areas
• Provide multiple communication channels (SMS, app notifications, calls)
• Implement feedback systems to continuously improve the process

How Technology Can Optimize Curbside Pickup Operationstch Management Platform

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Timeliness is the most critical component for a successful curbside delivery. Customers don’t want melted ice cream, spoiled fish, or soggy fries. But ensuring timeliness comes with costs in sorting, dispatching, scheduling, and managing the curbside pickups.

So, how do you efficiently fulfill curbside pickups without compromising on profit margins?

Ensuring timeliness, enabling efficient fulfillment, and providing exceptional customer experience are critical challenges in today’s competitive market. Investing in technology like a dispatch management platform is the primary way to address all these requirements. Advanced platforms help you manage these tasks for curbside with minimal human intervention. Here are some significant reasons your business should use technology solutions for curbside pickups.

Download the case study on eliminating human dependency in Retail Beat Plan here.

Flexible Pickup Time Slot Management

When businesses don’t provide multiple time slot options to customers to pick up orders, the curbside pickup might become inconvenient.

Say, a customer orders at 8 am and wants to collect it at 4:45 pm. But the business shows only the 3 pm to 3:30 am time slot for the order pickup. In this case, the customer cancels the order or moves on to another competitor who provides this flexibility.

With different time preferences for each customer, managing the time-based pickup schedules is daunting. It’s here that advanced technology solutions come into play.

Modern dispatch management software provides features like delivery-linked checkout. It helps your businesses provide multiple time slot options to customers for pickup based on fleet availability and capacity constraints. This feature makes it easier for your business to ensure the orders are ready for pickup when customers arrive at their designated curb space or store.

Real-Time Notifications and Communication in Curbside Pickup

Say, the customer hasn’t been informed about the order progress and keeps waiting to pick up the order. The customer calls your store or gets inside to track the staff who fulfills this order.

This happens when the store does not provide clear instructions, updates, and real-time curbside pickup alerts to staff and customers.

By leveraging advanced track and trace features, you can set up automated notifications about the order status along with the details of the staff assigned to the customer. Any delays on your end can be communicated to the customers for improved transparency through various convenient channels like SMS, chats or voice calls.

Expert Tip: Retailers using automated notification systems report 40% fewer customer service calls and 25% higher satisfaction scores for curbside pickup services.

Enable an ideal curbside experience for customers with advanced technology platforms

Manually fulfilling curbside orders makes it difficult to coordinate the staff, time the orders, prioritize, and schedule them.

So, the key to a successful curbside experience is using the right logistics technology that enables optimal utilization of resources.

Advanced dispatch management platforms help your business provide customers with an ideal curbside experience. Real-time tracking and time slot management capabilities enable your business to monitor curbside orders and deliver them on time. It prioritizes and schedules orders based on the customer’s arrival and ETA (Expected Time of Arrival), minimizing customers’ waiting time.

Are you looking to minimize the curbside waiting time of customers?

Curbside Pickup Beyond the Pandemic

While curbside pickup gained massive adoption during COVID-19, its benefits extend far beyond pandemic-related concerns. Industry data shows that curbside pickup is here to stay as a permanent fixture in retail fulfillment strategies.

Long-term Adoption Trends

• 85% of retailers plan to continue offering curbside pickup post-pandemic
• Consumer preference for convenience and speed drives sustained demand
• Integration with omnichannel strategies becomes standard practice
• Technology improvements make implementation more cost-effective

Future Innovations

• AI-powered demand forecasting for better inventory management
• IoT sensors for automated order readiness detection
• Integration with autonomous delivery systems