The most convenient way of delivering food to customers without delivering it to their homes is curbside pickup. This model allows customers to order their shopping list online, make a digital payment, and receive the items in their trunks without setting foot outside of their car.
In 2020, curbside pickup boomed as a safer way for employees to remain in their jobs and avoid human interaction. The convenience and minimal hassle for customers have made the delivery system increasingly popular.
As simple as it sounds, there are a few things stores need to consider to make curbside pickup successful. Let’s dive right into the ins and outs of curbside pickup and how you can use it to your advantage.
1. Organizing Your Digital Store Efficiently Is Key
E-commerce stores are the easiest way for customers to pick orders. Online shoppers are less likely to forget an item, the order processes automatically, and real-time tracking improves inventory management.
The biggest challenge here is organizing the online store, so it’s easy for customers to comb through the product lists. Customers who spend too long looking for products often give up the order process – and 21% of customers go directly to the competition.
That’s why it’s recommended to divide the digital store into aisles and clusters. If a customer is looking for strawberries, they should find them in fruits and then under berries. And, by providing well-photographed images of the available products, customers can decide faster and recognize the food easier than they usually would grab in-store.
2. Use Product Recommendations to Simplify the Customer Journey
Installing algorithms based on search history helps customers simplify their search. This means that anyone who logs into the online store will be shown products they or others have ordered before for quick selection.
Now, if you’re looking for an online store that manages the technical details for you and makes your eCommerce management easier, choose a provider that has robust features. At Local Express, we help build the digital store, organize it, and choose the design. With the help of our modern technologies, customers can enjoy product recommendations as well.
3. Organize the Curbside Pickup List
Choose an order-fulfillment technology that is suitable for pickup. Employees should receive the ordered products in an optimized pickup list. The location of the products in your store must be listed so that the employees can collect the items one by one without repeating the aisles. This increases efficiency, and collecting multiple orders becomes a lot easier for the employees.
You can use order-fulfillment technology like QR codes or barcodes to make the process even more efficient. By scanning the code of the product, the employees will know exactly where it is located in the store. This way, they can go directly to the location and pick up the items without having to search for them.
4. From the Store’s Doorstep to the Customer’s Trunk
The final step is to ensure that pickup customers have a place to park and pick up their bags as soon as they are ready. Designated parking spaces for your pickup customers near the store means employees can quickly put the purchases in the customer’s trunk and move on to the next order. Customers can leave the store satisfied.
By setting up pickup periods in the system based on the time it takes to get the packed groceries from the store to the car, customers are less likely to be frustrated waiting for a parking spot.
It’s important to note that larger orders will take longer to pack and carry to the car. Allowing extra time until the next delivery and using carts can help you get the delivery done faster and reduce the wait time in parking lots.
Curbside delivery is one of the easiest ways to reduce in-store congestion and improve people’s hybrid shopping experiences. By optimizing the pickup process and delivering reliable schedules to your customer, chances are that you’ll significantly increase customer loyalty to your supermarket.
Are you ready to improve your delivery services? Local Express helps you run a successful online store and marketing tactic.