After trying out the concept at 121 stores over the past 22 months, Target later this month will shut down a pilot program with startup Curbside that allows shoppers to grab their purchases at a kiosk in front of the store.
The program, which was first piloted in the San Francisco Bay area in August 2014, was expanded to New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.
A Target spokesperson said “We learned a lot” from the pilot with Curbside” but the company is “focused on making sure we deliver and execute on retail fundamentals.”
“That includes devoting more efforts and resources to enhancing some of our core digital-stores offerings such as Cartwheel, order pickup and shipping online orders from stores,” the spokesperson said.
The decision to end the pilot was “a timing/prioritization issue vs. performance” by Curbside,” he added.
Jaron Waldman, co-founder and CEO of Curbside, said Target has been a great partner “but they are suspending the program to ensure their supply chain can better support a perfect pickup experience every time at a nationwide scale.”
“In the meantime we’re really excited about our recent partnership with and investment from CVS that has Curbside in hundreds of stores and more coming later in the year, as well as the work we’re doing with Best Buy, Sephora, Levi’s and shopping mall operators,” Waldman said, adding there were be more partnership announcements later this year.
Mike O’Brien is Senior Editor of Multichannel Merchant