US Retailers Offering Curbside Pickup Grew Digital Revenue by 49% in 2020

In 2020, retailers who innovated to keep up with the changing consumer behavior reaped bigger than those that did not.

According to the research data analyzed and published by Comprar Acciones, retailers offering buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS) options increased their digital revenue by an average of 49% year-over-year (YoY). The growth rate was almost double that of other retailers, who saw sales increase by 28% on average.

Alternative pickup options included curbside, in-store and drive-through pickups. During the five days leading up to Christmas, retailers offering these options saw a 54% average uptick in digital revenue. Comparatively, those that did not only grew by an average of 34%.

Based on Adobe Digital Insights data, between November 1 and December 9, 2020, curbside pickup shot up by 88% in the US. During the period, curbside accounted for 23% of all orders. The uptick was particularly high from December 1 to December 9, 2020 when curbside grew by an astounding 94%. In this period, Adobe’s findings indicated a 33% higher conversion rate for retailers who offered the option versus those that did not.

According to Digital Commerce 360, 6.9% of its top 500 retailers were offering curbside pickup prior to the pandemic. By August 2020, the figure had risen to 43.7%.

Similarly, consumers shifted their purchase habits during the pandemic to take advantage of BOPIS options. Per Adobe data, at the onset of the pandemic, BOPIS shot up from a 15% share of orders to 25% in December 2020, marking a share increase of 65%.

During the holiday season, it continued to average 25%, marking a 40% increase over the 18% share reported in 2019.

Target’s Curbside Pickups Grow by 500% YoY During 2020 Holiday Season

Big-box giant Target was among the retailers offering curbside services during the 2020 holiday season. The retailer announced that its comparable sales for the two holiday months grew by 17.2% compared to November and December 2019.

During the period, there was a 12.3% increase in the average ticket and an uptick of 4.3% in the number of transactions. Comparable digital sales had the highest growth, soaring by a whopping 102%, compared to an uptick of 4.2% in-store sales.

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Target’s growth in online purchases far outpaced the overall industry growth. Based on data from Adobe Analytics, digital commerce in the US grew by 32.2% over the holiday period.

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Among the factors cited for the company’s digital growth is Target’s same-day delivery/pickup options. These included Drive Up (Target’s curbside pickup option), Shipt Delivery and Order Pickup. Cumulatively, the three options grew by 193% in November and December 2020 compared to a similar period in 2019. Drive Up had the highest growth, at 500%, while Shipt Up followed with an increase of 300% YoY.

Target reported having sold 150 million items under the Drive Up and Order Pickup options in December 2020 alone. In comparison to 2019, that was an almost four-fold increase. While other retailers struggled in 2020, Target recorded market share growth in the environs of $6 billion.

In Q2 2020, it announced the strongest results in its five-decade history, with digital sales growing by nearly 200%. The three-month period saw Drive Up surge by more than 700% as Shipt posted a 350% increase and Order Pickup rose by over 60%.

In Q3 2020, Target’s eCommerce sales shot up by 154%, accounting for 15.7% of its total retail sales. Drive Up soared by over 500% during the quarter, Shipt by 280% and Order Pickup by more than 50%.

Best Buy Expands Pickup Options to 16,000 Stores in 2020

Target was in good company in taking advantage of the benefits of BOPIS options. Best Buy introduced curbside pickups at almost all of its stores soon after the pandemic took hold.

It expanded its alternate pickup options to 16,000 stores during the year. In December 2020, it reported that 80% of the US population lives within a 5-mile radius of at least one of its locations. During the three-month period which ended on October 31, 2020, the company reported a 23% increase in sales at stores that were open for at least one year.

It was its best quarterly increase in sales in 25 years. It attributed the growth in part to curbside pickup sales as well as home delivery. Online sales during the period soared by 174% and accounted for over 33% of its total sales.

Similarly, during Q2 2020, it had reported an increase of 242% in online revenue. An estimated 41% of the said online sales were fulfilled through curbside pickup and BOPIS options. 53% of its total domestic revenue came from domestic online revenue during the period, up from 16% a year earlier.

For the first six months of fiscal 2020, Best Buy posted a 200% growth in online sales compared to a similar period in 2019.