Report: BOPIS Use Soars While Demand for Curbside Pickup Declines
Lululemon, Sephora, and Bloomingdale’s were just a few of the retail brands identified as “omnichannel leaders” in a new report released by the mobile-first omnichannel cloud platform NewStore.
The report, released earlier this week, was based largely on the findings of a team of mystery shoppers conducting undercover research on physical stores across the country. Using a proprietary methodology, the mystery shoppers audited each retail brand’s online, mobile app, and in-store shopping experience, and then scored each across a variety of categories.
While auditors found signs of momentum among the 300 retail brands they researched, they also found plenty of room for improvement. Brands that began their digital transformations prior to the pandemic were found to be in a better position to increase their investment in omnichannel systems today, and those brands that didn’t invest in digital prior to 2020 were still lagging behind the competition.
“The Omnichannel Leadership Report, at its core, is a comprehensive checklist of capabilities,” says NewStore Chief Marketing Officer Phil Granof. “We hope brands use it as such to understand the state of their solutions and services today, as well as those of their industry peers.”
Researchers found that more than half of retailers (54%) are now offering BOPIS (buy-online, pick-up in-store) services, but just 31% are showing store inventory availability online. One third of retail brands have a mobile app, and an impressive 76% are accepting contactless payments in-store.
Fifty-percent of online shoppers say they use BOPIS, and 61% of that group says they use the service at least once per month. While the popularity of BOPIS has never been greater, researchers found that its sister-service, curbside pickup, is down from 34% in 2021 to 25% in 2022.
