Curbside proves in-store shopping still hot
E-commerce may be growing at a double-digit pace, but the fact of the matter is that 90% of today's transactions still happen offline in old-fashioned stores.
That simple stat may explain how Curbside secured a $25 million Series B round Thursday led by Sutter Hill Ventures, bringing the start-up's total funding to $35 million since it launched in the fall of 2013. One of Curbside's earliest investors is Yahoo creator Jerry Yang, now a founding partner of AME Cloud Ventures.
Palo Alto-based Curbside is an app (Android and iOS) that offers consumers the option of ordering goods from Target and Best Buy, and then having those goods ready at the curb when you swing by.
The pitch is simple: Since drone delivery isn't yet offering truly instant gratification, this is a way to get those desired items without waiting on or paying for shipping.
The service is currently available in the San Francisco area as well as through some Target stores in New York and New Jersey. The new funding will help the team expand operations nationally, with Los Angeles coming online next.
Items are ready for pick-up an average of 40 minutes after they're ordered. While the company's initial flurry of orders were for staples for babies, that's shifted in recent months to include groceries and electronics.
"Local shopping made easier is a dimension we felt was being missed," says Curbside CEO Jaron Waldman. "We think there's a lot of potential for us outside of places like the Bay Area, where high income levels mean people are largely used to things being brought to them. Elsewhere, not so much."
The service is free to consumers, and the company makes "a few percent commission from retailers, who also like that we're generally bringing a slightly younger audience to them through our service," says Waldman.
The company has 70 employees, most of whom are associates who stand ready curbside with packages. They are hourly employees who get benefits, says Waldman.
"Legally that just seemed smarter to us at the time we made the decision, but now with everything in the news about Uber it seems even wiser," he says, referring to the on-demand car service's recent appeal of a California Labor Commission ruling that found its drivers should be considered employees. Uber is facing similar class-action lawsuits in Florida and Massachusetts.
If Curbside manages to expand nationally, Waldman says that he won't be hiring an army of associates but instead work to incorporate Curbside's service into the work flow of each participating retailer's staff.