by Yassine Ben Mansour | November 28, 2025
Introduction: Why BOPIS Needs a Better Playbook
Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS) has moved from experimental service to everyday expectations. Shoppers love the ability to order online, skip delivery fees, and pick up when it suits them—without wandering the aisles hoping an item is in stock.
For retailers, BOPIS can reduce last-mile delivery costs, drive store traffic, and unlock higher margins. But when processes are improvised—no clear roles, no standard workflow, no mobile tools—it quickly turns into long wait times, missing items, and frustrated associates.
This is exactly where structured runner workflows and mobile fulfillment powered by Jesta’s unified platform make the difference: they standardize every step from click to pickup and give store teams real-time visibility and guidance.
Why BOPIS Often Feels Broken
On paper, BOPIS is simple: a customer orders online, the store prepares the order, and the shopper picks it up. In reality, several operational gaps create friction.
Inventory is often not truly real-time. Systems that don’t share a single view of stock risk promising items that aren’t actually available. Store teams then scramble to find substitutes or cancel orders at the last minute.
There is also rarely a clear “owner” of BOPIS. Associates squeeze picking and staging into gaps between serving walk-in customers. When the store gets busy, BOPIS slips to the bottom of the priority list and orders sit untouched.
Finally, pickup experiences are inconsistent. Signage is confusing, BOPIS customers use the same line as regular checkout, and there may be no dedicated space for staged orders. Even when orders are technically “ready,” associates can’t find them quickly.
Shoppers, however, have very clear expectations. Many expect to collect their order in under ten minutes once they arrive at the store, and a growing share expects pickup to feel almost instantaneous. If retailers can’t consistently hit those numbers, BOPIS stops being a differentiator and becomes just another reason to switch brands.
Mapping the BOPIS Journey: From Click to Pickup
Before optimizing, it helps to break BOPIS into its core stages and understand where delays tend to creep in.
Order Placement
The customer shops online, selects BOPIS at checkout, and chooses a pickup location and time window. Product availability and expected readiness time are part of the promise the brand is making.
Order Routing and Allocation
The order is sent to the best-fit store based on inventory availability, distance, and capacity. Poor routing logic can overload certain stores and leave others underused.
Store Receiving the Order
Store systems alert associates that a new BOPIS order is ready to be picked. If this alert is buried in email, static reports, or shared inboxes, orders are easy to miss.
Picking and Staging
A runner locates each item, confirms them via scan, and stages the order in a dedicated area. Without clear workflows and tools, this step becomes slow and error-prone.
Customer Arrival and Check-In
The shopper arrives, checks in (at a kiosk, service desk, or via mobile), and the store is notified. If check-in is unclear, customers line up at regular checkout or wander the store looking for help.
Handoff
An associate or runner retrieves the staged order, verifies identity, and completes handoff—sometimes curbside, sometimes inside the store. Disorganized staging and poor labeling can turn this into a scavenger hunt.
Every delay or manual handoff between these steps compounds into longer wait times and higher labor costs. Jesta’s approach is to streamline them with standard workflows, mobile apps, and a single source of truth for orders and inventory.
Standardized Runner Workflows That Actually Work
The core of a reliable BOPIS operation is the runner workflow—the repeatable steps store teams follow to pick, stage, and hand off orders. Jesta helps retailers formalize this in a few key ways.
Make “BOPIS Runner” a Clear Role
Instead of relying on whoever is available, Jesta’s tasking capabilities assign BOPIS orders directly to designated runners or zones. That means:
- High-priority orders are surfaced first.
- Store managers can balance workload between front-of-house and runners.
- Accountability is clear: each order has an owner, timestamps, and status history.
Optimize the Pick Path
Without guidance, runners zig-zag between departments, wasting steps and time. In Jesta’s mobile runner app, pick lists are grouped logically—by location, aisle, or department—so associates can batch multiple orders into a single optimized route.
Runners see item locations and stock levels in real time, and they scan items as they go to avoid mis-picks. The result is a faster, more predictable pick time per order and far fewer surprises at the staging table.
Standardize Staging and Labeling
A common BOPIS failure point is the staging area: orders get stacked wherever there’s room, labels are inconsistent, and associates waste time hunting for bags. With Jesta:
- Each staged order gets a unique ID and location (rack, bin, locker, curbside slot).
- Labels and digital views match exactly, so any associate can retrieve orders quickly.
- Exceptions such as partial fills or substitutions are clearly flagged in the system.
This structured approach reduces confusion during peak times, when dozens or hundreds of orders may be staged simultaneously.
Mobile Fulfillment: Powering Runners on the Move
BOPIS is inherently mobile work—runners rarely sit at a workstation. That’s why mobile fulfillment tools are critical.
With Jesta’s mobile experience, runners and associates can:
- View real-time order queues with promised pickup windows and priority indicators.
- See exact item locations (floor, backroom, alternate store) with on-hand quantities.
- Scan items during pick to confirm the right SKU, size, and color.
- Update order status (picking, staged, ready, handed off) straight from the device.
For customers, this unlocks more proactive communication. Automatic notifications go out when the order is ready. Instructions are clear on where to go: service desk, dedicated BOPIS counter, locker bank, or curbside bay.
Instead of wondering whether their order is really ready, shoppers see accurate, real-time status—reducing calls to the store and eliminating awkward surprises on arrival.
“Current vs. Target” BOPIS Timeline
Most retailers can dramatically improve BOPIS simply by measuring and optimizing time at each step.
Typical Current State
- Two to four hours from order placement to “ready for pickup,” because picking is done in sporadic bursts.
- Ten to fifteen minutes from customer arrival to handoff, due to shared lines and disorganized staging.
Target State with Runner Workflows and Mobile Tools
- Under sixty minutes from order placement to staged for standard BOPIS orders, and much faster for rush options where operationally feasible.
- Three to five minutes from customer arrival to handoff, thanks to clear check-in flows and organized staging.
By tracking these metrics in dashboards and tying them to labor planning, retailers can tune processes store by store—identifying bottlenecks, staffing gaps, or layout issues and correcting them quickly.
BOPIS, Curbside, and the Broader Fulfillment Strategy
BOPIS doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It is part of a broader omnichannel fulfillment toolkit that also includes curbside pickup, ship-from-store, and pickup at alternate locations.
Jesta’s unified platform helps retailers:
- Share the same inventory view across BOPIS, curbside, and home delivery to avoid double-selling stock.
- Route orders intelligently based on distance, capacity, and promised speed.
- Reuse the same runner workflows with minor tweaks—for example, curbside handoff versus in-store counter.
- Feed performance data such as pickup times, cancellations, and no-shows into planning decisions.
For store operations, this means staff are not learning multiple separate systems. They are following one consistent playbook, with slight variations by fulfillment type.
Preparing for Peak Events and Promotions
BOPIS volume typically spikes around events like Black Friday, back-to-school, and major promotions. Retailers that don’t prepare see overwhelmed teams, jammed staging areas, and service breakdowns.
Using Jesta, retailers can get ahead of peaks by:
- Simulating order volume based on past events and current marketing plans.
- Pre-configuring rules—for example, caps on same-day pickup slots when capacity is near full.
- Scaling staffing plans for runners and pickup counters instead of just adding more cashiers.
- Adjusting pickup windows and communication so expectations stay realistic as demand surges.
The goal isn’t just to survive peak season, but to turn it into a showcase for how smooth the brand’s click-to-collect experience can be.
Why Jesta for BOPIS and Click-to-Collect
The underlying challenge of BOPIS isn’t simply allowing customers to select “pick up in store” at checkout. It’s orchestrating every step afterward—inventory, routing, picking, staging, and handoff—on a single, connected platform.
Jesta delivers:
- Unified inventory and order management that ensures promises reflect real availability, not stale snapshots.
- Configurable runner workflows that standardize best practices but still allow store-level flexibility.
- Mobile tools for store teams that guide every action, capture every scan, and update every status in real time.
- Analytics and reporting that move BOPIS from “firefighting mode” to a strategic lever for growth.
As customers continue to favor hybrid journeys that blend online and in-store, BOPIS will only grow more central to retail strategy. With Jesta, retailers can turn “buy online, pick up in store” into “click, glide, and go”—a fast, reliable experience that keeps shoppers coming back.
Common Questions
Why is BOPIS so popular with shoppers?
Shoppers choose BOPIS because it combines the convenience of online browsing with the immediacy of in-store pickup. They can avoid shipping fees, secure items before they sell out, and pick up at a time that fits their schedule—often faster than waiting for home delivery.
What KPIs should we track for BOPIS performance?
Key metrics include:
- Time from order placement to “ready for pickup.”
- Time from customer arrival or check-in to handoff.
- Fill rate and percentage of orders fulfilled on time.
- Cancellation and no-show rates.
- Attach rate (extra items added during pickup).
Jesta surfaces these KPIs so operations and marketing teams can refine processes and offers.
How can smaller store teams support BOPIS without adding headcount?
Standardized runner workflows and mobile tools allow smaller teams to batch picks, avoid wasted trips across the store, and reduce rework from mis-picks. Clear staging and check-in processes prevent bottlenecks. Often, simply reorganizing tasks and giving associates better tools unlocks significant capacity without new hires.
How does BOPIS interact with our existing POS and ERP?
With Jesta, BOPIS orders, inventory reservations, and pickups are fully integrated into the same core platform that powers POS and ERP. That means financials, stock levels, and customer records stay synchronized, whether a sale happens at the counter, via ship-from-store, or through BOPIS. There is no separate “side system” to reconcile—just one unified view of your orders and your customers.
