Curbside, a fulfillment app which lets retailers offer customers a convenient pickup option, raised $25 million to expand its business.
The app, which launched in October 2014, lets a shopper buy a product online and pick it up in front of the store without leaving her car.
Curbside is available at Target Corp. stores in San Francisco, New York and New Jersey, Best Buy Co. Inc. stores in the San Francisco Bay area and at Westfield Mall in Oakridge, CA. More than 55% of shoppers who use Curbside make repeat purchases with the service, says co-founder and CEO Jaron Waldman. Curbside’s month-over-month sales also increased 50%, he says on average for the year.
To take advantage of the curbside pickup, a shopper opens the app, selects a store, selects items, pays for products in the app and chooses in-store pick-up. Prices are the same in the app as on they are on the retailer’s website and reflect the store’s inventory available for pickup.
When a shopper arrives, a Curbside employee is waiting outside the store and places items in the customer’s car. The store’s employees gather the products, as they would for normal in-store pick-up, however, the items are flagged as Curbside orders. Curbside employees then pick up the items from the store pick-up area and hold it for the customer at a delivery station, usually a tent for now, in front of the store. They also send an alert to the customer that the purchases are ready.
When a shopper arrives at a participating store, the app alerts Curbside employees. After confirming the identity of the shopper by asking her name, the employee places the goods in the car and the shopper drives off.
From order to pick-up, the process could be completed within an hour, Waldman says. Curbside is available whenever a participating store is open so shoppers can choose whenever they want to pick up their goods. If a consumer doesn’t pick up an order within a few days, Curbside sends the shopper a reminder alert. Curbside is free for the consumer and the company takes a percentage of each sale, but Waldman would not disclose how much.
Follow mobile business journalist April Dahlquist, associate editor, mobile, at Mobile Strategies 360, @Mobile360April
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