Retailers are realising the need to adjust their offers and redefine their formats to suit new methods of collection. The news this week that Inditex is using a pop-up store as a click and collect destination point was therefore interesting. It comes a few weeks after Asda launched a click and collect parcel tower in one of its stores and shows where the market could be heading.
The Inditex move, which will be whilst the company’s Westfield Stratford store is revamped and extended, is evidence of how important retailers are recognising the channel to be. Click and collect specialist, CollectPlus, has topped a brand satisfaction poll in the delivery sector this week – showing how important customers also believe the channel to be.
Its future was also intensely discussed at the Delivery Conference which was held in London yesterday and from which we will bring you news and interviews shortly.
Click and collect will also be a key focus of our own event, eDelivery Expo (EDX) which takes place in Birmingham in March.
One key focus in the future of delivery is knowing how well carriers are performing and also knowing – for smaller retailers at least – who delivers where. Both needs have been addressed by the launch of two new tools – Delivery Intelligence and the MetaPack Carrier Mapping tool – which were launched by the company at the conference yesterday. Both will give increasing and much needed visibility into the process.
Returns naturally were also another huge focus of discussion at the event yesterday. In its latest innovation Yodel has launched a new enhanced returns service which allows a pick-up of returns from the customer within a two-hour collection for return to the retailer within 48 hours. It comes as a result of feedback from the company’s customer survey, Have your Say.
When it comes to having their say Royal Mail’s latest report suggest that delivery options are one of the key influencing factors when it comes to choosing what sellers to buy from on online marketplaces.
And finally IMRG MetaPack’s UK Delivery Index shows the strain put on delivery over the peak period. Its research shows that the number of items arriving on time fell to 85% in December – the lowest ever recorded. However it coincided with huge volumes for the market as well as last-minute ordering.
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