Curbside

Curbside, founded in 2013, developed a mobile commerce platform designed to enhance the connection between brick-and-mortar stores and their mobile-first customers. The company was established by Jaron Waldman and Denis Laprise, both of whom were former Apple engineers with expertise in location-based technologies, having sold their previous location-tech startups to Apple. Their collective background in this specialized field was foundational to Curbside's core technology.

The firm operates as a B2B technology partner for retailers and restaurant chains, offering a platform that facilitates a smoother 'order-ahead' and pickup experience. This service bridges the gap between online shopping and physical stores by allowing consumers to place orders via a mobile app and collect their purchases without leaving their vehicles. The business model centers on providing the underlying technology to merchants, who then offer the streamlined pickup service to their clientele. Key clients have included major brands such as CVS, Nordstrom, Pizza Hut, and Sephora.

Curbside's main product is a platform that integrates with a retailer's existing systems to manage mobile orders, inventory, and fulfillment. Its standout feature is a predictive arrival technology, which uses location data to track a customer's journey to the store, allowing employees to prepare and bring out the order at the precise moment the customer arrives. This system significantly reduces customer wait times and streamlines the entire pickup process. One of its key software offerings was a product named ARRIVE, a mobile SDK that enabled retailers to see when customers were approaching for order pickup or check-ins. In a significant milestone, Japanese e-commerce firm Rakuten acquired Curbside in June 2018 to bolster its own online-to-offline service offerings. A year after the acquisition, in June 2019, Curbside was rebranded as Rakuten Ready.

Keywords: mobile commerce, order ahead, retail technology, click-and-collect, predictive arrival, location services, store fulfillment, Rakuten, omnichannel retail, last-mile delivery