Rakuten Ready Debuts Contactless Playbook to Help Navigate the Order for Pickup Journey

SAN MATEO, Calif., June 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Rakuten Ready, the leader in predictive arrival technology, today unveiled its "Playbook for Creating Contactless Experiences," a resource guide for retailers, grocers and restaurants with insights to help drive their contactless order for pickup strategy.

Leveraging proprietary research, use cases and expert advice, the Rakuten Ready Contactless Playbook provides critical advice on specific actions for reimagining operations and thoughtfully creating a contactless experience that eases consumers' anxieties and keeps employees safe.

Seemingly overnight, businesses have been forced to adopt new technologies, embrace innovations and create new business models to provide a seamless and contactless experience that meets consumer demands. According to Rakuten Ready Contactless Consumer Survey conducted in April 2020, 76 percent of consumers used online order for pickup for the first time as a result of mobility limitations from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rakuten Ready's "Playbook for Creating Contactless Experiences" explores and expands on key insights such as:

    --  Consumers spend where contactless is prioritized - Consumer shopping
        behavior has created intense pressure on businesses to focus on
        protecting their consumer's health with a contactless experience.
        --  Retail, grocery, and restaurant online order for pickup orders grew
            201 percent in the two months between February and April 2020
        --  Consumers rank the visibility of contactless protocols as their top
            priority for feeling safe when they pick up orders from their
            favorite merchant.
    --  Consumers look for three important factors in a contactless experience -
        Contactless payment solutions, customer-centric order prep, and
        contactless handoff or pickup are the three pillars that consumers
        expect in an order for pickup experience.
    --  Technology is critical to the contactless order experience - Predictive
        arrival is the top choice of consumers for technology they want
        implemented by merchants in the future, cited by 65 percent of
        respondents.

"Consumer buying behavior has completely upended how merchants approach their business models. It also brought forward a much more challenging environment where safety and transparency are critical for business sustainability and essential to protect the health of their consumers," said Jaron Waldman, CEO and co-founder at Rakuten Ready. "The successful execution of a contactless order for pickup strategy throughout the customer journey is paramount. The Rakuten Ready Contactless Playbook will help guide businesses in the right direction."

Download a free copy of Rakuten Ready's "Playbook for Creating Contactless Experiences" at RakutenReady.com/contactless.

About Rakuten Ready
Rakuten Ready, the leader in predictive arrival technology, is defining the future with solutions that make it easy to drive demand and deliver superior order for pickup experiences. The company works with leading brands such as Kroger, Applebee's, PetSmart, Petco, Nordstrom and Chick-fil-A to power their mobile order for pickup programs. Founded in 2013 as Curbside by former leaders of location innovation at Apple, Curbside joined the Rakuten family in 2018 to accelerate predictive arrival technology and scale on a global stage. In June 2019, Curbside became Rakuten Ready.

Media Contact:
Kelley Crane
kelley.crane@zenogroup.com

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SOURCE Rakuten Ready