Does Pickup at Checkout Increase Conversion and Average Order Value?
Offering out-of-home delivery at checkout gives shoppers the option to collect from a nearby pickup point or locker instead of waiting in for a courier. Demand for pickup is well established, but most retailers still don’t have visibility over their own numbers once the option goes live. Across the HubBox portfolio, around 15% of UK orders choose pickup when the option is available at checkout.
Customers collecting their parcel tend to spend more per order than home-delivery customers, and they buy again sooner. The figures come from an analysis of HubBox UK retailers, which compared the two groups at the same retailers over the same period. How big the effect is depends on your category and visibility in offering pickup at checkout.
TL;DR
- Out-of-home delivery lets shoppers collect from a nearby pickup point or locker.
- At Manière de Voir, pickup orders had a 23% higher average order value than home-delivery orders within 10 months of installing HubBox.
- Around 15% of eligible UK orders across the HubBox network choose pickup when it’s available at checkout.
- Pickup uptake varies between retailers, with delivery pricing and checkout presentation influencing customers’ choices.
Does pickup at checkout increase conversion?
Adding out-of-home delivery to the checkout increases conversion by recovering shoppers who abandon when their preferred option isn’t there. For example, a shopper who chooses pickup but only has a home delivery option is left with a suboptimal choice. As a result, a meaningful share of them leave.
Delivery is now among the leading causes of basket abandonment in UK ecommerce. Research by Retail Economics and GFS in its UK Delivery Benchmark 2026 found that 59% of UK shoppers had abandoned a purchase because the delivery options didn’t meet their needs. Across non-food ecommerce, delivery-related issues accounted for an estimated £36bn in abandoned baskets in 2025.
Out-of-home delivery specifically is gaining share, with 36% of UK consumers now actively choosing retailers that offer pickup or locker options. Shoppers who want pickup are already in your checkout. Adding the option gives them a way to choose it.
Take-rate on the HubBox network bears this out. Across eligible UK checkouts where pickup is offered, around 15% of orders choose an out-of-home option. Take-rate varies considerably between retailers, with pricing and how the option is presented both influencing performance.
Out-of-home delivery is becoming a more important decision factor for UK shoppers, with 28.5% saying they would consider shopping elsewhere if it’s not available. Meanwhile, 22.3% of shoppers abandoned checkout because the delivery experience didn’t meet expectations.
Average order value: pickup vs home delivery
Customers who select out-of-home delivery at checkout can have a higher average order value than those who choose home delivery. At Manière de Voir, Local Pickup orders had a 23% higher AOV than home-delivery orders within 10 months of launching HubBox.
The comparison looks at pickup and home-delivery orders at the same retailer. Pickup customers spent more on average, although the figures don’t establish whether offering pickup encouraged them to spend more.
A reasonable reading is that pickup-choosing shoppers are higher-intent. Someone who plans a collection into their week has thought more about the order than someone taking the default option.
Repeat purchase and retention
Pickup can also support repeat purchase when customers find a collection option that works for them. Once someone has used the same pickup point successfully, the delivery experience becomes easier to repeat on their next order. They can collect around their own schedule without having to plan a home delivery window.
Reducing friction for returning customers can make a difference to retention more broadly. HubBox identifies repeat purchase rate as a core measure of ecommerce customer loyalty and points to an easier checkout experience as one way retailers can encourage customers to buy again.
The link from delivery experience to customer loyalty is covered in detail in delivery choice and the customer experience.
What influences pickup take-rate?
Pickup take-rate can vary a lot between retailers. Category can play a part, but pricing appears to have more influence on whether shoppers choose pickup over home delivery. If pickup is cheaper, or free, the choice is easier to justify. If it costs the same as home delivery, fewer shoppers may see a reason to switch.
Why shoppers choose pickup
Examples across retail categories
| Retail category | Why pickup can appeal |
|---|---|
| Apparel | Collecting an order around work or other plans |
| Vapes and e-cigarettes | Collecting regular purchases at a convenient location, where carrier rules allow |
| Adult products | Greater privacy when receiving an order |
| Gifts | Keeping a present a surprise for someone in the same household |
| Cosmetics | Collecting an order without waiting at home for delivery |
Basket value can influence the decision
Someone buying a more expensive item may be less comfortable having it left outside or waiting for a delivery attempt they might miss. UK parcel theft was estimated at £666.5 million over a 12-month period, with the average stolen parcel worth £138.
Pickup networks are bringing collection closer to shoppers
Carriers and locker operators have been expanding their UK networks, giving shoppers more places to collect. InPost ended 2025 with more than 13,700 UK lockers, up 48% in a year, while DPD’s UK pickup network now covers over 16,000 locations. Royal Mail’s parent company, IDS, also agreed to acquire Quadient’s UK network of around 3,000 lockers in September 2026.
How to present pickup at checkout without adding friction
Higher order value and stronger repeat purchase don’t follow automatically from switching the option on. It depends on how it’s presented in the first place. Poor checkout UX suppresses the demand that take-rate data picks up. A pickup option sitting below the fold will likely go unnoticed, while a locator that’s hard to read on mobile loses shoppers who had already decided to collect.
Placement is the most important variable
Out-of-home delivery should appear as prominently as home delivery in the delivery-options step, with the delivery timescale and price made equally clear. Showing when a parcel will be ready to collect, alongside any cost savings, helps shoppers decide whether pickup suits their plans.
Mobile checkout deserves particular attention because abandonment is much higher there. Baymard Institute puts mobile cart abandonment at around 85%, compared with under 70% on desktop.
Choosing a pickup point on each order
Customers select a pickup point each time they order because carrier networks change and locations may become unavailable. The selection process needs to be straightforward for returning shoppers, who may already know where they want to collect. Showing available locations clearly helps them find their usual point or choose another nearby.
Baymard Institute (2024/2025) reports that 64% of leading ecommerce sites score mediocre or worse in checkout UX, while the average site has 32 unique checkout improvements to make; see Checkout UX Best Practices 2025 and E-Commerce Cart & Checkout Usability Research.
Pickup performs differently depending on how it’s presented at checkout. Retailers with stronger take-rate tend to give it the same prominence as home delivery and make the choice easy to understand. Category still has an influence, but checkout presentation is something retailers can change. If pickup is buried or feels like the less convenient option, fewer shoppers will choose it.
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Frequently asked questions
Does offering pickup slow down the checkout?
No, a well-implemented out-of-home option adds a step only for shoppers who want it and removes a reason to abandon checkout for shoppers who need an alternative to home delivery. A shopper who can’t find their preferred delivery method is likely to leave. Showing the option they would have chosen keeps them in the checkout.
For example, a locator that loads slowly or is hard to use on a small screen adds friction of its own. Load speed sits with your integration rather than with where the option appears at checkout.
How many shoppers abandon checkout if their preferred delivery option isn’t available?
Research by Retail Economics and GFS (2025) found that 66% of frequent UK online shoppers abandoned purchases at least once due to inadequate delivery choices. Delivery is now consistently among the top causes of basket abandonment in UK ecommerce. Out-of-home delivery recovers a portion of these shoppers by matching supply and pickup option to a preference that already exists.
Do pickup customers spend more than home-delivery customers?
Yes, in at least some retailer data. At Manière de Voir, Local Pickup orders had a 23% higher average order value than home-delivery orders within 10 months of installing HubBox. The result shows an association between pickup and higher AOV at that retailer, rather than proving that the delivery method itself caused customers to spend more.
Is click and collect the same as out-of-home delivery?
Click and collect is one form of out-of-home delivery, typically collection from a retailer’s own store or depot. Out-of-home delivery is the broader category and includes third-party pick-up drop-off (PUDO) points, automated parcel machines (APMs) and lockers, as well as click and collect. The data and analysis in this article covers all three formats via the HubBox carrier-neutral network.
