Dive Brief:

• In the final weeks of a holiday season where consumers are looking for alternatives to in-store shopping, Best Buy is touting expanded pickup and delivery options. Those choices include 16,000 "alternate" pickup locations at partners like CVS Pharmacy, Michaels, Advanced Auto Parts and UPS, the electronics retailer said on Monday.
• The retailer has expanded some of the pickup and delivery options from its own stores as well. Curbside pickup is available both before and after regular shopping hours, the company said, and for same-day services, customers can now check out as late as 3:00 p.m. local time and receive their orders by 9:00 p.m.
• On the back end, Best Buy has enlisted its store employees to deliver orders to customers until 10:30 p.m. local time every day, and transformed 340 stores to be ship-from-store hubs to handle a "much higher volume of orders."

Dive Insight:

Last week, customers picked up millions of orders through curbside pickup, according to Best Buy. In a holiday shopping season that has been more online than in the past, the electronics retailer has expanded its curbside pickup hours to give shoppers greater flexibility in the coming weeks. Tapping into its in-store workforce as well as third-party delivery partners allows the retailer to accommodate consumers who don’t want to shop in stores, the company said. 

Since COVID-19 has created in-store shopping concerns, customers have turned to e-commerce orders, placing a strain on shipping. Research suggests that more consumers are using curbside or contactless pickup than in the past, one survey conducted by BlackFriday.com and SurveyGizmo found that half of the respondents said they would use those options. A separate report from Narvar found that more than half of respondents tried curbside pickup and returns, and more than a third of respondents reported experiencing substantial shipping delays.

With consumers working and spending more of their free time at home, Best Buy reported growth in its e-commerce sales during the second and third quarters this year. To prepare for increased demand leading up to the 2020 holiday season, the retailer joined others in announcing its holiday promotion in early October and enlisted Instacart for same-day deliveries in mid-November. The retailer has relied on curbside pickup and contactless shopping options to adapt to the coronavirus pandemic economy.