Three months after Target once again began testing curbside pickup with employees in the Minneapolis area, the perpetually-playing catchup retailer has expanded the program to actual customers. [More]
in store pickup
You Probably Live Near A Walmart, So It’s Depending On In-Store Pickup For Growth
By 8.17.17
Walmart is out to dominate in e-commerce, but while finding ways to deliver as few orders as possible to customers using the postal service or private carriers. Instead, the company wants to draw customers to its stores with pickup towers or grocery pickup points, or dispatch store employees to make deliveries. [More]
Macy’s Launching Its Own Self-Scanning Technology In Stores, Kinda
By 8.10.17
While Walmart tests stores where shoppers walk around scanning their own purchases with smartphones, and Amazon tests a store where customers just pick up their purchases and walk out with them, Macy’s doesn’t want to be left out. That’s why the department store chain is testing its own system, which turns its stores into a catalog showroom for smartphone users. [More]
Walmart Expands Use Of Giant Orange Vending Machines For Online Pickups
By 7.5.17
Walking into your local Walmart you could soon be greeted with a giant, orange vending machine, as the big box retailer expands the self-service kiosks in order to provide online customers with a quick option to pick up their orders without the apparent hassle of having to speak to a human being. [More]
Walmart Adds Discount For Shopping Online, Picking Up In Store
By 4.12.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Shopping online and being able to pick up your purchase at the store is a minor convenience, but you still have to drive to the store, wait to be served, get your package, and drive home — and you may have paid more than you would at Amazon or some other online-only retailer. So to make this option more attractive to shoppers, Walmart.com will be discounting millions of items if you purchase them for in-store pickup. [More]
Walgreens Introduces In-Store Pickup For Online Orders
By 10.17.16 — Updated: 10.19.16
We’re not sure which shoppers have been sitting around dreaming of the day when they could place an online order and pick it up from their neighborhood drugstore, but Walgreens is making that scenario real by adding site-to-store to its e-commerce offering. Is this all a ploy to get you into a store? Yeah, pretty much. [More]
BJ’s Introduces Pick Up And Pay Service For People Who Dislike Walking Around Warehouse Clubs
By 4.20.16
Do you like shopping at a warehouse club, but don’t like the experience of actually walking around inside a warehouse club? BJ’s Wholesale Club is following the not-especially-hot trend of in-store pickup, allowing members to pick up online orders at their local club. They have to go fetch any perishable grocery items themselves, though. [More]
PetSmart Creates Adorable Holiday To Promote In-Store Pickup
By 12.22.15
Retailers love the idea of customers picking their online orders up in a local store, but shoppers are starting to find it inconvenient. One store has an idea to promote the practice: PetSmart is offering a special discount on online orders that are picked up in a store tomorrow, a day when it’s too late to ship gifts purchased online. The name, “National Fetch it Day,” is unlikely to catch on with other retailers, though. [More]
Retailers Struggling With In-Store Pickup This Holiday Season
By 12.21.15
Ordering an item online and picking it up at the local outlet of a chain retailer is a great advance in e-commerce, but it seems more convenient than it is. Even when everything is working smoothly, it doesn’t actually save shoppers any time. The service hasn’t been operating smoothly at many retailers this holiday season, though: is it doomed to end up in the trash bin of business ideas that seemed like a good idea at the time? [More]
Kohl’s Rolls Out Buy Online, Pick Up In Store Nationwide
By 5.7.15
The ability to order something online and pick it up is very appealing to consumers, even though doing so apparently doesn’t save us any time. Now Kohl’s, another retailer that had been testing this delivery method in fewer than 10% of their stores, is rolling it out nationwide. [More]
Walmart Entices Shoppers To Try Online Grocery Pickup With Discounts
By 3.25.15
Does the idea of placing an online grocery order at Walmart and then simply visiting the store to pick it up appeal to you? Walmart is now experimenting with a few pilot stores where you can do just that, and now they’re experimenting with special discounts to get customers to try it out. [More]
Walmart Testing Online Grocery Ordering And Pickup In Denver
By 1.31.14
Ordering stuff online for in-store pickup is convenient and saves on delivery fees, but would you do it with groceries? Would you do it with groceries at Walmart? That’s what the mega-retailer hopes to find out by testing “Walmart To Go” service in Colorado. They’ve combined their grocery delivery and in-store pickup business models, which just might be the logical coc [More]
Sears Messes Up, I Have To Face Life Without A Light-Up Skiing Santa Pig
By 1.30.14
Mike had a simple desire. He wanted a lighted skiing pig Christmas decoration. He wanted several of them, actually. Sears had them available, so he placed an online order, choosing in-store pickup. Sears e-mailed him that his order was ready, and he happily drove 40 miles to Sears in winter weather to pick it up. If you’ve ever placed an online order with Sears, you know what happened next. [More]
Barnes & Noble’s Online Price Match Policy Still Confuses Customers, Drives Them Away
By 11.13.13
“Barnes and Noble apparently hates money,” Travis wrote in the subject line while e-mailing us about his most recent shopping experience there. Well, that can’t be: we thought that all stores liked more business and more money, unless they’re massive anti-capitalist pranks like Sears or Lenovo. He stopped by his local Barnes & Noble to use a coupon while getting human interaction. That’s when he collided with Barnes & Noble’s price matching policy. [More]
New On eBay: In-Store Pickup, For Toys ‘R’ Us And Best Buy
By 10.29.13
Exciting news from eBay! The site now lets sellers offer in-store pickup or ship-to-store, just like shopping on the sites of national retail chains. That should be no surprise, though: the first sellers to launch the new option are Best Buy and Toy ‘R’ Us. Wait, Best Buy and Toys ‘R’ Us sell on eBay? [More]
Why Finish Line Can’t Sell Me The Shoes That Are 2 Miles Away, Ships Them From Opposite Coast
By 1.18.13
“How hard could it be?” Tom asked himself when he set out to use an online-only Finish Line coupon to buy some sneakers. He could stop by his local store and pick the shoes up on his way home from work. Simple! Only not all that simple. It seems like the online and in-store inventory systems of national chain retailers should be integrated, but things are, as they always seem to be in the real world, not that simple. [More]
Why In-Store Pickup Is Kind Of Weird
By 1.17.13 — Updated: 9.18.14
Jeremy blames the strangeness of his recent electrical cord reel puchase on Sears, but nothing about it was peculiar to that retailer. There was a $20 discrepancy in price for the same item online rather than in the store. Now, few stores price-match online retailers or price-match themselves. What they do offer is in-store pickup for your online order. Jeremy took this to its ridiculous but logical conclusion and purchased his item online, then carried it to the pickup area and out the door. [More]
Toys R Us Takes Holiday Toy Orders, Then Ignores Customers
By 11.30.12
Yesterday, we shared JC’s sad story about the Little Tikes pizza oven he ordered from Toys R Us that is stuck in the bowels of the Toys R Us ordering apparatus with no explanation. He ordered that kitchen much earlier than most customers, but he’s not alone in wondering where his order went. In Jen’s case, she just went ahead and ordered the same item cheaper from another vendor, but couldn’t get through to TRU to cancel her original order. [More]
