Curbside Pickup is Here to Stay. Do you Know Why?

Curbside pickup is one of the latest and most convenient innovative services being offered by restaurants, especially to ease the burden of their customers when it comes to the delivery of the orders. The increase in the number of people using their cars to pick up food from restaurants has resulted in this new business practice. Restaurants are implementing this strategy to reduce delivery costs and customer waiting time.

Restaurant businesses, in particular, now adopt a curbside pickup strategy in fulfilling online or call orders. In this guide, we explain what a curbside pickup is. We also provide information on how to make a curbside pickup, use a curbside pickup, and offer curbside pickup as a business entity.

What Does Curbside Service Mean?

Many people around the world today use the services of a pickup curbside. But for the uninitiated, curbside service is any service where a customer can order an item and then pick up his order at a designated store, warehouse, or pickup location.

The curbside pickup system promotes quick, speedy, and convenient delivery of ordered items. If a customer is pressed for time and orders a menu item from a restaurant, they can use the curbside service option rather than get it delivered to their home. The customer takes this option because they prefer to pick up their ordered meal while going to work, a meeting, or whatever may have made them pressed for time. 

This customer arrives at a designated outlet on their way, pulls up to the curb (so to speak), and picks up their order without the need to venture inside the restaurant. Curbside pickup is a timely and highly convenient service that many people are drawn to these days. 

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, curbside pickup helped customers and businesses adhere strictly to mandatory social distancing protocol. 

With curbside pickup, customers didn't have to disembark from their vehicles, and they received their orders while waiting for a minute or two in their vehicles. The concept of curbside pickup made and continues to make a lot of sense to customers and businesses alike.

What is Pickup Marketing?

Pickup marketing involves a strategy that encourages customers to order items and then pick up those items at a designated store location. 

You have both local and world market pickup strategies. This marketing strategy became popular at the height of the Corona-virus pandemic in December 2020 and has become a more acceptable order fulfillment option.

Curbside pickup is a type of pickup marketing strategy where businesses create an avenue for customers to place orders online or via phone calls. These customers can then pick up their ordered goods at a fulfillment center of their choice either on the same day or on an appointed date.

What is the Difference Between Pickup and Curbside?

The main difference between pickup and curbside lies with the mode, requirements, timing, and procedures for pickup. For the former, a customer would more than likely be required to walk into the store and provide a form of identification before having access to their ordered goods.

Also, the date of pickup is often not determined by the customer. The business often sends the customer a text or email message informing them of the arrival of their goods at a store location. The customer can then go over to pick up their item with the presentation of the necessary verification and identification documents. Global package delivery services like EMS or DHL operate a pickup system.

However, for curbside, a customer makes an order that they can decide to fulfill on the same day or another appointed day. The customer also decides which location to pick up their ordered item. This customer then drives to the designated outlet to pick up the item without even walking into the store. This type of service works perfectly for restaurants and fast-food chains. 

How to Implement Curbside?

Before starting a curbside business, you need to factor in some key things. Some of these include:

Store Outlets

You need to have designated store outlets spread across your area of operation. If you are a local business, you may only need a few stores, but larger businesses with an international outreach may require many stores in their region(s) of operation. Also, the whole point of a curbside pickup strategy is to have ample space for drive-in customers to park, pick up their orders, and drive off without obstructing traffic or regular walk-in customers. 

Test Runs

No system runs smoothly without adequate test runs. Investing in pickup store outlets is not enough; you also have to invest in staffing and training. These staffs need to be put through rigorous training involving real-world scenarios for common dispute resolution.

Investment in Technology

The last thing you need is customers having to do all the work of ordering items and then placing the same order again upon arriving at their designated pickup store location. Customers should stop by the store outlet to pick up their previously ordered item(s) with no hassles whatsoever. 

It means investing in technology like geofencing tools, which alert staff at a store location of the arrival of all incoming ordered items. In addition to this, a customer should easily check-in at a curbside store equipped with free WiFi internet access rather than local mobile phone networks.

Integrate a Curbside Option in Your eCommerce Site 

It is not enough to say you operate a curbside service option. You also need to have this option visible and accessible to traffic on your eCommerce site.

 A curbside service page can be set up to educate and inform prospective customers of the importance and benefits of using the curbside service option. You can promote your curbside service option via social media platforms through posts or paid advertisements.

Promote Benefits of Using Curbside Service

Customers need to know what they stand to gain from using this option. You could promote low-cost or discount benefits, attracting potential customers to your service. Seasonal promotional offers should be considered as well as loyalty or VIP packages.

What Do You Need for Curbside Pickup?

There are a few things you'll need to run an effective curbside pickup strategy for your business.

#1. Money: A curbside pickup operation requires a lot of capital investment in infrastructure and staffing. 

#2. The right technology: Customers should be able to purchase items online via an active eCommerce site. They also need to be able to choose a store location for the pickup. At the location, your staff needs to be able to efficiently resolve fulfillment orders using technological tools that save time on both ends.

#3. Pickup stores: You need to have enough pickup store locations within your area or region of service operation.

#4. Adequate space: Store locations should provide sufficient space for vehicular parking and maneuverability without disrupting outgoing or incoming traffic.

#5. Trained staff: Your store staff should be well trained. They should be put through all possible real-world scenarios for crisis resolution. They should be quick in the time they spend attending to each customer as this is the unique selling point (USP) of curbside pickup.

The Bottom Line

A curbside pickup business is here to stay as it provides the customers with cost-effective, secure, and fast delivery of orders. In addition to this, curbside pickup makes health and safety considerations.

So even in the event of another pandemic, this business model is sure to continue and thrive. That is why curbside pickup is so popular today, and it seems it is here to stay.

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