--- title: "Store Pickup and Curbside: Retail Practices That Speed Service Without Draining Labor" url: "https://retailingcentral.com/qa/store-pickup-and-curbside-retail-practices-that-speed-service-without-draining-labor/" author: "Retailing Central" published: "2026-09-23" updated: "2026-09-23" --- # Store Pickup and Curbside: Retail Practices That Speed Service Without Draining Labor ## Store Pickup and Curbside: Retail Practices That Speed Service Without Draining Labor Store pickup and curbside services promise faster fulfillment, but without the right systems in place, they can quickly overwhelm retail staff and hurt operational efficiency. This article shares five proven strategies from industry experts that help retailers deliver speed without adding labor costs. These practical approaches address inventory management, order batching, and team workflows to keep operations running smoothly. ### Use Timed Windows for Batch Orders We learned this the hard way at my e-commerce brand when we added store pickup. Our first month, in-store customers were livid because online orders had grabbed all the fast-moving SKUs by 11am. We were cannibalizing our own retail sales to fulfill BOPIS orders. The single change that fixed everything was switching from real-time inventory to reserved pickup windows with batch picking. Instead of promising "ready in 2 hours" the second someone clicked submit, we created four daily pickup windows: 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, and next morning. That simple shift let us batch 15-20 orders together and pick them during natural retail lulls, not during our morning rush when shelves needed to stay full for walk-ins. Here's what most retailers get wrong. They treat BOPIS like fulfillment center work, but it's actually a merchandising problem. Your store team isn't warehouse staff. They're there to sell, restock, and help customers. When you pull them every 20 minutes to grab a single online order, you destroy their rhythm and the in-store experience suffers. We started staging picks at 10am, 2pm, and 5pm. One person could knock out 25 orders in 45 minutes instead of five people getting interrupted all day. The staging area matters more than anyone admits. We carved out 80 square feet near the back entrance, added cheap metal shelving from Home Depot, and labeled spots by pickup time and last name. Orders sat there ready to grab. Curbside took 90 seconds instead of hunting through a pile of bags in the stockroom. Accuracy jumped because the same person who picked also staged and could catch errors before the customer arrived. At Fulfill.com, I see brands now asking 3PLs to handle their retail pickup orders from a nearby warehouse instead of the store. Sounds backwards but it actually works. The store keeps full shelves, the 3PL picks faster because that's what they do all day, and customers still get same-day service. The future of retail pickup might not happen in retail stores at all. *— [Joe Spisak](https://www.linkedin.com/in/spisakjoe), CEO, Fulfill.com* --- ### Decouple Curbside Inventory From Store Shelves The single change that improved our pickup speed was decoupling curbside stock from shelf stock in the inventory system, so an online order can never promise a unit that a walk-in shopper is already holding. Real-time inventory visibility drives everything downstream. When our feed was updating on a nightly batch, pickers spent the day hunting for phantom units, calling customers with substitutions, and stripping the shelf displays that in-store shoppers came to find. We kept throwing labor at what was a data problem. Once the counts were accurate, a designated curbside prep area handled the rest. We pulled the top-moving pickup SKUs into a staging zone near the pickup door, replenished on a set cadence from the backroom rather than from the sales floor. Pickers stopped walking the store. Shelves stayed full. The same person could assemble three orders in the time one floor-walk used to take. Then we tightened the arrival workflow. A tablet that flags the customer's arrival and the order's status keeps staff from carrying bags out to an empty parking spot or standing idle while the customer texts from a lane over. Most of the wasted time in curbside is waiting time, and the notification step compresses it. My background is medicine, and I think about it the same way I think about a clinical workup. Fix the diagnosis first. Bad inventory data is a misdiagnosis, and staffing adjustments will never compensate for it. *— [Ben Frederick](https://linkedin.com/in/ben-frederick-md-3381416b), Founder, Dr. Frederick's Original* --- ### Empower Teams to Control Same-Day Commitments To avoid overworking labor or depleting shelves when processing curbside and pickup orders I have cut same day or next day fulfillment to orders that small cross-functional teams can undertake end-to-end. I have also been cross training staff to cover the core tasks of the fulfillment process so each task is covered by at least two people. This reduces the number of order fulfillment handoffs and actually helps the teams process orders with the sales floor coverage. The most significant impact I have seen so far has been allowing frontline teams the choice to accept or refuse same day fulfillment promises. This has greatly reduced special approvals, overcommitment of orders, and stock uncertainty by clarifying ownership of each fulfillment promise. *— [Lina Haj Hussien](https://www.linkedin.com/in/linahajhussein), Founder and CHO, Employee Engagement & Experience Manager, Inspire* --- ### Prepare Kits Before Draw Windows We are virtual, so pickup means specialty kits and forms ready without draining the person covering the portal. The change that helped was staging kits the afternoon before a draw window, labeled inside the covered workflow only, timed to the plan after a 60-minute visit. Front-desk scrambling mid-morning stopped. Accuracy beat speed theater, and the 6 to 8 week follow-up still had labs on a date. *— [Anna Evans](https://linkedin.com/in/anna-evans-msn-aprn-fnp-c-78b1582a8), Founder, Interlinked Wellness* --- ### Assign Pick Bins to Paid Orders We do not run a floor that leaves walk-ins empty. For local courier collection and click-and-collect style pickups, the change that sped accuracy was a reserved pick bin separate from the sellable 28 on the shelf map. Orders stage into that bin by cutoff, so online stock is not half-picked for a late collection while another customer buys the last Oyin. In The UK Wash-Day Report 2026, https://zenvy-beauty.com/blogs/news/uk-wash-day-report-2026, the average UK curl routine used 5.2 products. Keeping four of those reserved for paid pickups, and leaving the rest sellable, stopped the labour chase and the empty-shelf fight in one move. *— [Emma Rusby](https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-rusby), Director, Zenvy Beauty* --- ### Related Articles - [How Retail Teams Speed Up Buy Online, Pick Up In Store Without Hurting Store Service](https://retailingcentral.com/qa/how-retail-teams-speed-up-buy-online-pick-up-in-store-without-hurting-store-service) - [Speed Up Retail Store Pickup Without Hurting the Sales Floor](https://retailingcentral.com/qa/speed-up-retail-store-pickup-without-hurting-the-sales-floor) - [Set Honest Speed Promises for Retail Pickup and Local Delivery Without Straining Stores](https://retailingcentral.com/qa/set-honest-speed-promises-for-retail-pickup-and-local-delivery-without-straining-stores)