With people having to socially distance, store owners have had to find new ways to keep business going during the coronavirus pandemic.

Many have turned to store or curbside pick up to offer their customers a safe option when collecting their orders.

For most, this is a totally new way of operating – and some retailers weren’t even set up for online orders before Covid forced people into lockdown.

As many countries were told their physical stores would have to close indefinitely, merchants began looking for tools and platforms that could help them to continue trading quickly and efficiently.

This article will take a look at one of the great options that has allowed thousands of Shopify stores to keep offering their customers great service; curbside pickup.

Now that’s a lot of gyan above, my fingers are tired already typing the above lines 😉 Quickly jumping into the topic below,

What is curbside pickup?

Curbside pickup is a service which allows customers to collect their order from a convenient location, rather than having the item shipped to their home.

It can be as simple as the name describes – a pick up from the curb outside your store – or somewhere else, like your warehouse.

It may sound pretty innovative, especially in these times when we’re all being asked to keep our distance. But it’s actually not a new concept at all.

Drive-in restaurants with carhops, where staff bring out food to the comfort of your car, first appeared back in 1921.

Almost 100 years on, consumers have only continued to demand more convenient services, with plenty of big-name chains rolling out pick up delivery services over the past decade.

Walmart initially piloted its free pickup service in Denver in 2013, enabling customers to order groceries online and pick them up at their local store without leaving their cars.

How does curbside pick up work?

The fancy terms BOPIS /Click & collect – The savior here.

Well, curbside pick up works in a really similar way.

First, your customer places their order through your online store, as well as where and when they’d like to pick it up.

They also have the option to pay online in advance, with their chosen payment method.

Their order details will then be sent to you, the merchant, to prepare it and let them know it’s ready for collection. At this stage, you can also send any extra information, such as a number to call when they arrive.

The customer then arrives to collect their order. You may opt to have staff on hand at the curbside to put it directly in their car, or they can collect it from the store if they prefer.

I’m least experienced on this topic but I can surely say that things cannot be changed overnight.

Why & how we implement this.

I will just cover the bullets here,

•  It’s quicker
•  Guaranteed delivery- they want it any how
• Customers are always busy- None waits.
• The logistics person would not throw the parcel in the door ,doesn’t get caught in the door cam and becomes viral in Facebook! 😉
• Saves shipping fees.
• Last, No one is coughing or sneezing around which puts customers in jeopardy. Minimize social interaction.

How do we do it.

There is lot of platforms and technology available to do this.

For example: For small businesses, online services like Shopify allow you to set up virtual storefronts to function alongside your brick and mortar presence.

Also there is a lot of extensions available to get this working in your online store, But apart from these how do we operationally equip ourselves.

Below are few pointers my side.

• The POS system- Have a pos system which gives realtime inventory details, We dont want the customer to go empty handed after driving all the way from home.
• Omnichanneling is not a fancy term anymore, I want the stocks to show the same in website, Mobile as well in the POS system so that I can plan my inventory & pick pack Drop accordingly.

Train Staff in Curbside Pickup Procedures 

I dont have any implementation experience on this , but we can

• Have packaging prepped and ready to go before accepting orders
• Keep pickup contactless by offering online payment options
• Friendly to the customers who come for pickup
• Guide them to good parking spaces, obviously the customer dont want to go with a damaged bumper when they reverse the vehicle 😉
• Marketing/loyalty-stick a coupon in the parcel so that we can turn them into loyal customers- Hope so 😉
• Include a personal note in the parcel.

The above are the some Vanilla pointers which I can think of, Please do send a ping in LinkedIn if you think you can add more flavor to my vanilla above.