When online retailers with physical stores choose omnichannel features to deploy, there are plenty of reasons, including convenience, customer loyalty and conversion rates. Among the most widely offered options, however, one omnichannel feature stands out for its impact on conversion.
Digital Commerce 360 analysts compared conversion rates for retail chains with omnichannel offerings to those of Top 1000 retailers broadly in the new 2025 Omnichannel Report. The Top 1000 is Digital Commerce 360’s database of best-performing online retailers in North America by annual web sales.
Retail chains with buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS); curbside pickup; or in-store stock status tended to have higher conversion rates than the 3.1% rate seen among all Top 1000 retailers.
Which omnichannel feature is associated with the highest conversion rates?
Among retail chains with omnichannel features tracked in the newest edition of the Omnichannel Report, those with curbside pickup had the highest rates of conversion. While other features were also associated with elevated rates, chains that offered curbside pickup in 2024 had an average conversion rate of 3.9%, nearly a full point higher than retailers with no omnichannel offerings at all.
For comparison, those with BOPIS had a rate of 3.4%, while those with in-store stock status had a rate of 3.3%.
So, why is curbside pickup so effective? The service is not for everyone. Only 24.8% of retail chains in the Top 1000 offered it in 2024, down from a high of 55.1% in 2020. That spike and subsequent falloff as the COVID-19 pandemic played out saw retailers re-envision how they used their parking lots. Not all retailers kept offering curbside pickup as the pandemic waned. But those that did figured out how to unlock added value for customers.
Which retailers still offer curbside pickup?
The highest rates of offering curbside pickup in 2024 could be seen at Food & Beverage (50.0%) and Office Supplies chains (also 50.0%). The option, along with same-day delivery, has found staying power among grocery chains and Mass Merchant retailers, especially those with paid membership programs where added convenience and mobile-accessible options can entice sign-ups.
Walmart, Target, Albertsons and Kroger all offer curbside pickup, with a recent Ipsos study finding that Albertsons ranked No. 1 for its execution with a 97% rate of “very satisfied” responses among its shoppers. In the same study, Amazon Fresh led with the most respondents (76%) indicating it was the brand they were most likely to use again.
For retailers looking to enmesh themselves in consumers’ household restocking cycles for food and other needs, the relationships they build as a result of these offerings can pay off for years to come.
📧 Editor’s note: Subscribe to our retail newsletter to make sure you see each weekly edition of Ecommerce Trends.
Do you rank in our databases?
Submit your data and we’ll see where you fit in our next ranking update.
Sign up
Stay on top of the latest developments in the ecommerce industry. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 Retail News. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Be the first to know when Digital Commerce 360 publishes news content.
Favorite