US in-store pickup buyers will grow, while curbside buyers will plateau

Click and collect will be less relevant as pandemic concerns wane, but it’ll still make up 8.5% of total US ecommerce sales this year.

• In-store pickup will emerge as the clear preference for US click-and-collect buyers. By 2026, 66.4% of click-and-collect buyers will use in-store pickup, compared with the 46.1% who will use curbside pickup.
• Curbside buyers grew nearly 49% YoY in 2020, when consumers taking health precautions avoided going in-store. But growth plateaued once concerns faded; curbside buyers are now expected to decrease over time.
• Over the past few years, most of the innovation around click and collect focused on the curbside experience. Walmart partnered with Cure Hydration to put free samples inside curbside grocery orders. Target added a Starbucks ordering feature for its curbside customers. But post-pandemic, these types of marketing and sales initiatives will create more value when centered on in-store pickup.
• If demand for curbside continues to drop, retailers may end the practice. Some retailers have already done so. Costco Wholesale tested curbside pickup in 2021 but ultimately decided not to move forward. And Kohl’s recently discontinued its curbside option, instead focusing on automated in-store pickup.