Curbside pickups 

Senior consumer insights analyst Lauren Freedman puts curbside pickup to the test on Cyber Monday at 11 major retailers. Results from this real-world test show some retailers have a well-run operation, while others struggle when order volume is too great for limited staff.

In our Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights pre-holiday survey of 1,088 online shoppers in September 2022, 27% of respondents indicated they would likely be placing an online order for pickup at a store, while 17% would take advantage of curbside pickup.

I have long been a fan of both options and know that it’s important to monitor shopping experiences to see what’s new and, in this case, what’s different than the past. With that in mind, I placed 10 orders on Cyber Monday to see how retailers fared. I purposely chose this day to see if there would be any fallout from the Cyber 5 weekend. Pickups were everywhere from urban locations to suburban malls. Retailers shopped included:

• Best Buy
• Crate & Barrel
• Dick’s Sporting Goods
• Crew
• Kohl’s
• Macy’s
• Michael’s
• Nordstrom
• Target
• Walmart
• Williams-Sonoma