Doddle has moved beyond railway stations to launch carrier-agnostic collection points at universities.
The Network Rail joint venture started operating at railway stations last year, offering shoppers the opportunity to collect their online purchases from the same pick-up point, no matter where they’d bought them. This week Doddle announced that it had opened its first outlet in the University of Salford student village – and that it expects to open on nine more UK university campuses this year.
Thomas Bush, sales and marketing executive at Salford Student Village, said: “It has been a huge relief having Doddle take control of our mail service here at Salford Student Village. They have helped take strain off the front office team, which has allowed them to focus their time on more important aspects of their role such as customer service. We are happy to see how well the operation is going and could not believe how smooth the transition period was between ourselves and Doddle.”
In total, Doddle now has 32 stores, and expects to have 100 by the end of this year.
Tim Robinson, Doddle chief executive, said: “The launch of Doddle in universities is an extension of the convenience offering we have in railway stations. Customer service and convenience is in the Doddle DNA and we will continue to look for new ways to make parcel collection and sending easier for our customers.”
Customers can sign up for Doddle online or via Android and iOS apps.
Our view: In a world where future multichannel success seems highly likely to depend on putting the customer first, it was just a matter of time before carrier-agnostic delivery initiatives such as this came about, as we pointed out only earlier this week. Now we’re impatient to see the carrier-agnostic collection point go beyond the smaller communities of commuters and student campuses to wider availability on local high streets around the UK.
