CVS and Target have something else in common. Back in June, the two companies announced that Target would sell its pharmacies to CVS and make room for the drugstore chain's clinic business (MinuteClinic) inside some of its stores, a deal worth $1.9 billion. Now, CVS is following Target in making an investment in Curbside, a third-party service, which as its name suggests delivers online orders to customers at the curb at no additional charge.
The new service known as CVS Express will be available to the chain's customers using CVS's mobile app or Curbside's. The service is currently available through CVS locations in Atlanta, Charlotte and San Francisco. Approximately three-fourths of the SKUs sold in CVS stores are available using Curbside. CVS plans to include more stores in the service later this year.
"We founded Curbside to help make shopping at neighborhood stores faster and easier than ever before," said Jaron Waldman, co-founder and CEO of Curbside, in a statement. "Our proprietary location technology ensures seamless, reliable order handoff at the moment a customer arrives and our console app powers an efficient pick and pack operation for CVS Pharmacy colleagues to prepare orders in the store."
"CVS Express is a perfect embodiment of our digital mission," added Brian Tilzer, senior vice president and chief digital officer, CVS Health. "By working closely with our retail team and partnering with Curbside, who brought industry-leading technology to our platform, we rapidly developed a seamless and simple solution that creates a significant time savings for customers."
- CVS Health Announces Partnership with Curbside, a Company Perfecting the Store Pickup Experience, to Bring New Level of Retail Convenience to Customers - CVS
- CVS invests in Curbside, a startup that lets you buy online, pick up at store - Re/code
- CVS invests in Curbside to bring mobile orders and store pickup to its retail stores - TechCrunch
- Will CVS and Target be stronger together under one roof? - RetailWire