Curbside pickup gets even more hands-free
Store pickup at Target, Best Buy and other major retailers is getting a boost from a whole new innovation from tech startup Curbside.
The company, which has partnered with these retailers to provide a curbside pickup app for its customers, has unveiled its first ever Curbside Pickup Pod at the Glendale Galleria mall in Southern California.
With Curbside, consumers can now shop from stores within the Galleria right from the Curbside app on their mobile phone and then swing by to pick up all of their orders from one central pickup spot – the Curbside Pickup Pod – right as they pull up to the curb.
The Curbside service is free, the app is free and the company does not mark up store prices. It’s perfect for the mall-goer sick of battling the parking wars, finding items on store shelves and waiting in never-ending checkout lines.
The company expanded its service to the New York/New Jersey market this month after launching in the San Francisco Bay Area last fall, and is now coming to Los Angeles, starting with the Glendale Galleria, where shoppers will see the first Pickup Pod.
The Pickup Pod:
Features a massive pinhead that lights up with the color designated to the phone screen so customers know when their your order is ready (e.g., when the order is filled the phone lights up yellow … when the customer arrives the pin head lights up yellow since it’s been tracking the customer's location and thus it knows they are there).
And, because the Curbside app is connected to the store’s inventory, the consumer knows everything they order will be there at the Pod once they arrive.
While many companies, including Amazon, have been focused on speeding up local deliveries, and even offering same-day delivery options for select customers in largely urban markets, others have been experimenting with more of a hybrid model when it comes to e-commerce.
Curbside says if the tests with retailers like Target, Best Buy and mall operators go well, the company plans to expand its service to more locations.