Buy online, pick up in-store. It’s something we’ve all seen and taken advantage of, and during COVID, the number of customers using BOPIS in North America nearly tripled. But the fulfillment option has been around since about 2013. 

Over a decade later, BOPIS has become so much more than a convenient fulfillment option for customers. It’s an essential part of every omnichannel brand’s marketing strategy — but it’s largely untapped.

If you’re treating BOPIS as a checkbox on the checkout page, you’re missing a much bigger opportunity.

The hybrid customer journey starts here

Shoppers don’t really think in terms of channels anymore. They navigate their purchase journey more fluidly, using whatever combination of channels and touchpoints gets them what they want, as soon as they want it. A customer might discover a product on Instagram, compare prices on mobile, place the order on desktop, and pick it up in-store — all within a few hours.

Ten years ago, this hybrid shopping journey may have been an exception. Now, it’s the standard. And for marketers, that changes everything.

The opportunity to purchase an item online and pick it up in person mere hours later represents a key bridge in this journey. It’s a critical moment where digital intent turns into tangible, physical engagement. An in-store pickup isn’t just the end of a transaction — it’s a moment where brands can connect real-time purchase behavior with the in-store experience. And when that interaction is supported by smart segmentation and deeply personalized marketing, it creates a far more cohesive and high-impact customer journey.

The marketers who win in this environment aren’t the ones obsessing over the perfect subject line for an email blast. They’re the ones designing systems that adapt to the way customers actually shop — by integrating digital and physical experiences.

Pickup behavior is marketing and personalization gold

One of the most powerful advantages BOPIS offers marketers is the ability to act on real-time behavior — not just transactions. When a customer chooses to pick up their order in-store, it signals something about their urgency, their location, their availability, and even their product intent. These are all data points that should inform how and when you engage them.

Right when an online order is placed for in-store pickup, brands have a narrow window to deliver a lot of messaging: a confirmation email and a timely reminder SMS, followed by a post-pickup campaign to drive repurchase or product discovery. With the right marketing platform in place, these actions don’t require manual intervention.

Beyond individual messages, BOPIS data allows brands to create smarter, more dynamic audience segments. And over time, pickup behaviors are reliable signals that can help you fine-tune how you reach your audience.

The idea here is understanding that you have more information about your customers than they offer up. Your goal should be to use it — in real time — to create marketing that adds value to the customer experience by reflecting how they actually shop.

How BOPIS strengthens full-funnel campaign performance

For acquisition, BOPIS is invaluable. It opens the door to urgency-driven messaging that makes it easier to complete the first purchase. Campaigns built around the opportunity to “buy it online but pick it up today” convey convenience, but they also drive immediate action.

Mid-funnel, BOPIS creates a unique data opportunity: It allows you to understand both online browsing behavior and purchase intent and urgency. You can use this information to optimize timing, content, and channel strategy. 

Here are a couple of examples:

• A customer who frequently picks up items in-store can be added to a high-urgency segment and targeted with time-sensitive and location-based offers.
• A customer who browses online but only converts when in-store pickup is available can be bucketed into a “pickup-first” segment and targeted with campaigns that lead with store availability.
• A customer who starts out placing in-store pickup orders but switches to shipping over time might be flagged for a winback journey that highlights in-store benefits, exclusive local inventory, or curbside perks.

And when it comes to retention, BOPIS can easily power repeat engagement loops. You can create loyalty offers after a set number of pickups, automate local restock alerts, or even suggest complementary products available for pickup at the same location.

The strategic value of BOPIS shows up not in one interaction, but across the entire customer journey. Brands who treat it simply as a fulfillment option will keep missing this value. Brands who incorporate it into their marketing strategy will turn pickup behavior into increased revenue.

Marketers should drive the BOPIS conversation

For ecommerce brands, discussions about BOPIS get siloed within operations and supply chain planning. But marketers have to be part of the conversation. BOPIS is fulfillment, but it’s also a brand experience and a conversion accelerator that feeds everything from list segmentation to messaging logic to campaign planning.

Incorporating BOPIS into your ecommerce marketing strategy means:

• Mapping it into your customer journey flows
• Using pickup behavior to build smarter segments and campaigns
• Capitalizing on urgency and inventory-based messaging during peak sales windows
• Creating continuity across online and in-store experiences that strengthens your brand

The brands that are doing this well aren’t just reacting to hybrid shopping habits — they see every store as a local engagement hub and every pickup as a personalization opportunity.

So the question isn’t whether BOPIS is valuable for your brand — it’s whether your marketing strategy knows how to unlock its potential.

Want to learn more about how BOPIS can unlock conversions and customer loyalty for your brand? Talk to our team to set up a demo.