There is a divide between Retail and Warehouse execution.
While both connect supply to demand, adding customers to the Retail process will always introduce nuance and exceptions into execution. Rather than less process rigor, Retail needs more discipline to be in place to drive a truly exceptional Customer Experience (CX).
Powering BOPIS conversion and upsell
Retail pickup services such as these are not just CX nice-to-haves, but measurable revenue drivers:
- Buy online pick up in store (BOPIS)
- Buy online ship to store (BOSS)
- Buy online return in store (BORIS)
If your stores see ~300 BOPIS orders a week and even a conservative 70% of those customers add one extra item at pickup (anchored by ICSC’s benchmark for add-on purchases), that’s ~$10,500 in incremental weekly sales at a $50 add-on AOV.
Now the catch: unhappy customers don’t buy more. You don’t get that upsell if your fundamentals are shaky.
The best way to turn BOPIS / BOSS / BORIS into reliable revenue is to push warehouse-grade KPIs and disciplines into the back and front of house (BOH / FOH) so associates can stage confidently, hand off on time, and upsell to ecstatic customers.
This is Unified Commerce in practice: fulfillment excellence powering in-store conversion.
Read how Deposco enabled a 90% drop in short ships, a 30% increase in ATS across store network, and 70% of inventory now available for sale during business hours plus overnight fulfillment.
Accuracy is the new ambience: make in-store frictionless
Customers arrive primed to like you. They just bought something, and they are excited. Nothing kills that faster than a wrong item or a missing size. It’s a broken promise, and with intense competition for retail sales, a competitor will gladly keep it for you.
Treat store receipt, picking, order prep, and handoff with the same quality controls as your fulfillment center.
Surface these warehouse KPIs to stores
- Perfect Order % / Mispick Rate / Damage Rate: Did you execute with discipline from promise to handoff? Strong technical and process guardrails are key.
- “High-risk SKU” list: Low stock, variances, cancellations. Triage any issues relentlessly. Cycle count inadequate inventory quickly and update your available-to-promise (ATP).
- Promise-by vs. actual readiness: Set reasonable promises to the customer and keep them. Make it “Goldilocks” – not too fast, not too slow, just right.
Store actions
- BOH scan-verify when totes arrive; do a quick rework path if something’s off.
- Flagged SKU double-check before “ready for pickup”, in apparel to ensure it’s the right size and right color.
- Verify, verify, verify. It’s the foundation of pickup customer happiness.
Why this matters
Every avoided escalation preserves the customer’s mood—and their openness to add-ons. Fewer counter fixes means faster handoffs, higher satisfaction, and higher attach rates.
Don’t reinvent the wheel, borrow warehouse best practices
Warehouses win on predictability. Bring the same rhythm into your BOH operations so pickup moments happen on time with minimal chaos. Speed, efficiency, and accuracy are hallmarks of a fulfillment center, and your retail teams should embrace the same ethos.
Surface these KPIs to stores
- Pick-to-Stage Cycle Time: What was the time from order drop to ready for pickup?
- Staging location utilization: Ensure your space design matches process expectations. People work faster and with fewer errors when the area conforms.
- Late-order queue count: Expediency is everything with store pickup; make sure your SLAs are clear to the team using displays, prioritization, and gamification on screens.
Store actions
- Run mini-waves for in-store picks: Store picking should be a continuous flow of smaller tasks due to the tight turnaround expectations.
- Stage hot item areas: Frequent purchases or current ad runs should be easy to find, especially during ecommerce drops. Analyze this frequently and communicate with fulfillment staff.
- Standardize curbside vs. service desks vs. register flows. That way, associates aren’t context-switching at peak; a narrow focus will increase efficiency and clear communication to the customer.
Why this matters
Predictable readiness gives associates the bandwidth and confidence to suggest complements (care kits, accessories, size-upsell). That’s your path to consistent attach rates—and consistent $50 add-ons.
Lack of friction empowers your floor team and excites your customers.
Design for attach: turn pickup into a selling moment
Don’t leave attach rates to chance. Consider the travel path and time from door to pick up, the visuals, and the attractiveness of your floor plan. Make that design clear to sellers. Merchandising, planograms, and micro-scripts should make the “yes” effortless. The best case is when customers sell to themselves.
Surface these KPIs to stores
- Pickup Attach Rate: What percent of orders had upsells on pickup? Be able to analyze by channel.
- AOV on pickup orders: What were the number and price of the additional items? Know and communicate the value of this program.
- Handoff dwell time: Keep it quick; sell adjacent, not at the counter. Train floor teams to start the upsell at the moment of customer greeting.
- Gamification: Clear, public, easy to understand. Drive SLA adherence and competitiveness on task completion.
Store actions
- Place a curated rack/cart beside the pickup point. Include accessories, care items, seasonal tie-ins, and catalog drops with attention-catching signage.
- Arm associates with simple scripts: “You’re set for the [item]. Many customers pair it with [X]—want me to grab it while you verify your items/try this on/check the fit?”
- Add POS prompts for common complements and services.
Why this matters
Attach rates thrive when the environment and prompts are intentional and a natural part of well-defined processes. Remember: what gets measured, gets managed. Tracking and rewarding success endears it to your floor teams while tracking effectiveness and value, enabling future refinement.
Fail and iterate quickly: continuous improvement is key
One of the biggest CX killers in a high-speed environment is the lag between signal and a desire to craft a ‘perfect’ response. Don’t try to overengineer your reporting; respond to dissatisfaction quickly with evolution, not revolution.
You don’t need a new BI program to get smarter; you need a short, responsive loop.
Track and tune
- Attach Rate, AOV on pickup, dwell time, etc.: Circulate KPIs to all levels with one view of truth, regular cadences with teams, and pilot tweaks as needed.
- Log edge cases (split shipments, special orders, high-risk SKUs); adjust SOPs and system rules to patch holes.
- Align labor blocks to known promos and drops (new SKU launches, weekend pushes, predictable sales) so handoffs stay smooth without adding hours.
Business Actions
- Create a cross-functional fire-team: As you move to Unified Commerce, no changes should happen in a vacuum because vertically integrated systems are a cat’s cradle. Pull the wrong string too hard, too quickly, and you can collapse the system.
Why this matters
A keen focus on consistent execution keeps attach rates real and repeatable. Making sure promo spikes, oddities, and one-offs don’t trick you into flawed conclusions will be essential. Triaging issues as surge, versus regular business, will keep the whole organization aligned and incremental improvements grounded.
Example of estimated upsell BOPIS revenue
Quick math:
300 pickups/week × 70% attach × $50 add-on ~ $10,500 incremental per week
(Annualized: ~ $546,000 if sustained—your mileage will vary with seasonality)
What to do next
Want your pickup counter to behave like a top-performing endcap?
Deposco pipes warehouse-grade KPIs (accuracy, cycle time, exception signals) straight into store-friendly tasks and touchpoints so managers can align labor to drop curves, stage on time, and convert happy traffic.