Consumer shopping behavior is continuously evolving towards mobile which is why it has become increasingly important for merchants to connect with consumers and customers where they are spending most of their time on – in their mobile devices.
Pickup service and product search startup, Curbside, announced that it’s partnering with Yelp and CVS.
Curbside makes it easy for consumers to buy, find, and pick up goods from nearby stores. The app allows the search of local inventory across hundreds of retailers. It also uses technologies that are location-based in order to alert stores whenever a particular customer is about to arrive for a pickup. The company has successfully helped tens of thousands of its users in getting what they need quickly and in assisting retailers serve their mobile-centric customers better.
"With how things are going, customers are spending more and more time on mobile apps like Yelp. It will be a better experience for customers to reach them in the context of where they are living. It’s also more cost-effective," said Jaron Waldman, Curbside’s CEO.
The timing of the partnership of Yelp and Curbside is pretty fortunate as Yelp just launched its food delivery business. Earlier this month, Yelp said it plans to strike a good deal with GrubHub. The multinational corporation, Yelp, already made a business deal in order to sell the online food-ordering startup, Eat24, to GrubHub. GrubHub already acquired other similar companies such as MenuPages and Seamless. As for the Eat24 deal, it was worth more than $280 million, which will be paid in cash by GrubHub. The deal allows Yelp users to order directly from GrubHub.
According to the Business Development Director of Yelp, Peter Curzon, Yelp does not need to be dealing with logistics and delivery. This is among the many reasons why they are working with great companies who specialize in their fulfillment.
"As of the moment, we are planning to continue the acquisition of more products and partners," said Curzon.
As for the deal with Curbside, Yelp will make an agreement on revenue-sharing in which Yelp will get a cut from each transaction that occurs on Curbside’s platform. Both companies chose not to disclose any specifics regarding the deal.
Last quarter, Yelp witnessed an increase of about 2 digits in its transaction and advertising revenue. On the other hand, the number of the reviews within its site and mobile app grew to approximately 100 million. Jerry Stoppelman, Yelp’s CEO, highlighted the mobile app of the company as the reason why the growth of Yelp is hastened. In just a year, the app had been downloaded 22% more compared to the previous years combined.
The company is expecting its streak to keep on rolling, and it expects the revenue for this year to be within the range of $855 to $865 million. The range is just slightly above what’s expected by analysts and experts within the industry.
