The new CVS Express service will offer greater convenience to customers, but the service has some limitations.
As customers search for more convenient, more personalized shopping experiences, CVS is rising to the challenge, as it will soon be virtually unnecessary to enter a CVS location in order to purchase products.
According to a report from USA Today, customers will soon have the ability to order most items through a mobile app and then have their order delivered to their vehicles when they drive up to their local CVS location. The company’s new CVS Express service is a product built on a mobile platform through a partnership between CVS and Curbside.
Through the partnership, the company’s new curbside pickup service is being integrated into CVS’s main smartphone app. USA Today reported that there will be no price increased as a result of using the Curbside pickup service, and CVS has announced that orders will take roughly an hour to be completed.
In addition to responding to consumer demand, CVS Express also comes in response to competition, such as same day delivery services that offer similar products to those offered by convenience retailers.
The report from USA Today has revealed that CVS stores in California, North Carolina and Georgia will begin offering the curbside pickup service immediately, while the majority of the remaining 7,900 stand-alone U.S. locations will adopt the service by the end of the year.
Although this service will greatly increase convenience to customers, USA Today has reported some minor complications that the chain will encounter as the service gets up and running. Some of these limitations include the requirement for prescription drugs to be sold in the store or through a separate drive-through window, the fact that only 75% of store’s products will be available for order through the service, and the CVS Express service will not be hooked up to the store’s inventory system, which may cause problems when customers order items that are out of stock.
