Buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS), buy online, return in store (BORIS), and endless aisle are business models that let retailers fulfil, return, and extend product availability across physical and digital channels. They’re specific, multichannel payment flows, each with its own inventory, staffing, and payment requirements that have to work together.

In the first quarter of 2026, e-commerce represented 16.9% of total US retail sales and estimated volume increased 9.8% year over year. That shift drives retailers’ need for transaction models that span physical and digital channels. Below, we’ll explore how the BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle models work in practice, the challenges they present, and what payments infrastructure has to do to support cross-channel retail at scale.

Key takeaways

• BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle each depend on real-time transaction data and payments infrastructure that can handle cross-channel transaction logic without manual intervention.

• Unified commerce is the technical architecture that makes these models reliable; running them on fragmented systems creates failure points for retailers.

• Integrated payments infrastructure handles cross-channel refunds, unified transaction history, and consistent fraud detection across physical and digital transactions.

What are BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle in retail commerce?

Three business models have reshaped how physical retail competes with digital retail: BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle. Each one eliminates a boundary that used to define where a transaction began and ended.

• BOPIS lets a customer complete a purchase online and collect it at a physical location, usually the same day.

• BORIS lets customers who bought through any channel walk into a store to process the return, often with the option to exchange or repurchase on the spot.

• Endless aisle allows in-store customers to order products that are sold only online or are currently out of stock.

How do BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle work in practice?

Each model follows a distinct sequence of steps—and each one fails in a distinct place when the infrastructure isn’t ready. Here’s what these systems need to operate as intended.

BOPIS

BOPIS depends on real-time inventory synchronisation between the e-commerce platform and every store location. If that sync is delayed (or if the inventory data is wrong), the system either oversells or sends a customer to collect an item that doesn’t exist. Order routing logic has to determine which location fulfils the order based on proximity, stock levels, and fulfilment capacity. The store then needs a pick-and-pack process that fits alongside regular operations, a designated pickup area, and a way to verify the customer’s identity at collection.

BORIS

When a customer returns an item in-store that was purchased online, the system has to locate the original transaction, apply the correct refund logic, and route that refund back to the original payment method, regardless of whether the purchase happened through the website, an app, or a third-party marketplace.

The more complex layer is what happens at the point of return: the customer might receive store credit, exchange for another item, or get a refund to the original payment method. Each path requires different logic at the point-of-sale (POS) system, and the system has to handle partial refunds if the original order included multiple items.

Endless aisle

Store associates use a connected terminal or tablet to access the full product catalogue, including sizes, colours, and configurations that aren’t stocked in that location. When a customer wants something the store doesn’t have, the associate can complete the sale and arrange direct shipment to the customer’s home. This requires the in-store checkout system to process a transaction that’s partially physical (the associate interaction) and partially digital (the fulfilment). The payment is captured immediately, but fulfilment routes through the warehouse or supplier. Returns on these orders then fall into BORIS territory, which adds another layer to an already complicated chain.

Why is unified commerce important for BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle?

Unified commerce is the technical architecture that connects all customer touchpoints and back-end operations to a centralised platform.

In a fragmented setup, the e-commerce platform, POS system, and inventory management system all operate on separate databases that sync periodically, which means the data is never fully current. BOPIS can fail when the inventory count is 24 hours old, BORIS collapses if the POS system can’t locate the original online transaction, and endless aisle breaks when the in-store terminal doesn’t have access to real-time warehouse stock.

Unified commerce replaces those separate databases with one platform that simultaneously manages inventory, customer records, order history, and payment data across every channel. BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle are reliable only in that environment. Retailers that run these models on disconnected systems are managing them through manual work-arounds, which creates failure points and caps how much they can grow.

How does payments infrastructure support BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle operations?

These business models require payments infrastructure that can handle cross-channel transaction logic without manual intervention. Here are the scenarios where this matters most:

• Cross-channel refunds: The system has to match the return to the original payment method (e.g., credit card, digital wallet, BNPL) and issue the refund programmatically.

• Split and partial captures: A BOPIS order might be partially available for pickup while the rest ships later. The payment authorisation needs to reflect the stages of fulfilment, instead of presenting a single up-front charge.

• Unified customer profiles: When payment data is tied to a customer record that persists across channels, the business can see that the same person bought online, picked up their order in-store, and returned a different item the following week.

• Consistent fraud detection: An in-store return for an online order should create the same fraud signals as any other transaction. But fraud patterns that span channels aren’t caught if neither system has the full picture.

What are the challenges of running BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle retail?

The customer-facing version of these models looks simple, but the day-to-day reality can be more demanding. Here are the most common issues that arise with BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle:

• Inventory accuracy: A mismatch between what the website shows as available and what’s actually on the shelf leads to a broken order and a frustrated customer. Retailers with high stock-keeping unit (SKU) counts and multiple locations need cycle counts, real-time stock adjustments, and loss prevention practices that keep the system accurate. Some businesses also buffer their BOPIS availability (only showing items as available for pickup when stock exceeds a threshold), but that creates its own inefficiencies.

• Staff training and store operations: Each BOPIS, BORIS, and endless aisle interaction is a service transaction that requires ongoing training and investment. Staff have to locate orders quickly, verify identities, handle returns on purchases they didn’t process, and complete endless aisle sales on systems they might not use every day.

• Return fraud: BORIS increases the risk of refund fraud. A return processed in-store for an online order is harder to verify than a return processed through the same channel where the purchase occurred. Without cross-channel transaction data, staff can’t confirm the original payment method or check whether the item being returned matches what was ordered.

• System integration costs: Connecting e-commerce, POS, inventory, and payment systems that weren’t built to talk to each other requires substantial technical work. The cost is ongoing maintenance every time one system updates its application programming interface (API) or changes its data structure.

Stripe addresses the payment layer of these models directly. Stripe Terminal supports a range of hardware configurations for dedicated pickup counters, traditional checkout lanes, or mobile devices for associates on the floor. Stripe Payments handles the online side of these transactions and lets businesses manage online and in-person payments in one place. When a return happens in-store on an online order, Stripe Radar has access to the full transaction history (e.g., device fingerprints, IP data, purchase patterns) and applies consistent fraud signals regardless of where the interaction occurs.

How Stripe Payments can help

Stripe Payments provides a unified, global payments solution that helps any business – from scaling startups to global enterprises – accept payments online, in person and around the world.

Stripe Payments can help you:

• Optimise your checkout experience: Create a frictionless customer experience and save thousands of engineering hours with prebuilt payment UIs, access to 125+ payment methods and Link, a wallet built by Stripe.

• Expand to new markets faster: Reach customers worldwide and reduce the complexity and cost of multicurrency management with cross-border payment options, available in 195 countries across 135+ currencies.

• Unify payments in person and online: Build a unified commerce experience across online and in-person channels to personalise interactions, reward loyalty and grow revenue.

• Improve payment performance: Increase revenue with a range of customisable, easy-to-configure payment tools, including no-code fraud protection and advanced capabilities to improve authorisation rates.

• Move faster with a flexible, reliable platform for growth: Build on a platform designed to scale with you, with 99.999% historical uptime and industry-leading reliability.

Learn more about how Stripe Payments can power your online and in-person payments or get started today.