NEW YORK, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Curbside pickup, which has saved many U.S. businesses from the fallout of months-long COVID-19 pandemic, is turning into some retailers' best strategy for long-term survival in the e-commerce age, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
"What started as a coronavirus stopgap is likely to have a permanent impact on the way people shop, along with giving them a new reason to continue to visit beleaguered physical stores," said the paper.
The popularity of curbside pickup reveals that the future of retail is not just more packages piling up on people's doorsteps. Beyond satisfying the need for contactless shopping in the pandemic, it taps into Americans' desire to drive to a store, a pull that can be just as strong as, or even stronger than, the convenience of home delivery, it added.
"Americans are used to their cars and actually do like stores, so this is kind of a hybrid where you're getting the best of both worlds," Oliver Chen, a retail analyst at Cowen, was quoted as saying.
As of August, about three-fourths of the top 50 store-based retailers in the United States offered curbside pickup, according to Coresight Research, an advisory and research firm that specializes in retail and technology.
Meanwhile, "curbside allows certain big-box retailers to convert their stores into mini e-commerce fulfillment centers, while avoiding the money-losing step of shipping goods to homes," said the paper.
The rise in curbside pickup, part of a larger surge in e-commerce sales, has implications for preserving retail jobs, though workers' duties are likely to transform. It is also helping to keep brick-and-mortar spaces relevant when thousands of storefronts have emptied out as more customers move online, it added. Enditem
