Retailers Tesco and Waitrose are joining Asda in signing up to bring their click and collect services to the London Underground. The two supermarkets will each have collection lockers in up to six stations, while InPost UK is also to install its own lockerbanks at three stations.
“Giving our customers as many ways as possible to buy and collect their groceries on the move is key to building on the phenomenal growth seen at Waitrose.com,” said Robin Philips, Waitrose director, ecommerce.
Andrew Yaxley, Tesco managing director for London, said: “Our customers really enjoy the convenience of click & collect because it makes shopping so much easier.
“The additional pick-up locations will give even greater flexibility to our customers because they will have more options to collect their shopping at a time and location that’s most convenient to them.”
The announcement came from Transport for London (TfL) today, and follows hard on the heels of Asda , which announced a six-month trial of click and collect points at Tube stations last November. Graeme Craig, director of commercial development at TfL, said today that the Asda pilot had been “very successful”. “We look forward to establishing new partnerships and developing new concepts with other retailers,” he added. The retail income is part of a TfL commercial strategy expected to generate £3.5bn in years to come.
Kieran Shanahan, Asda ecommerce director, said: “We’re very proud of our partnership with TfL, which was a retail first when we launched last year.
“It gives more customers convenient access to Asda alongside our click and collect sites at business parks, park and ride plus of course, at our stores.”
The click and collect services enable online shoppers to collect orders placed over the internet during their journeys and are part of a trend towards taking click and collect services out of supermarkets’ own premises and to where their customers are.
Waitrose’s Philips said: “Collection lockers will unlock the potential to reach customers in locations where we don’t have a shop and which are very convenient, such as on the way home from work or the school run.
“More and more people are adding an online shopping mission to their way of buying from Waitrose and we will continue to invest in making sure that we give them what they want, when they want it.”
London Underground points out that customers may also have placed their online orders over mobile devices while using the network, since there’s now wi-fi at more than 120 of its stations.
Mike Brown, managing director of London Underground, said: “Over 11m journeys take place on our public transport network each day and there is a fantastic opportunity for us to work with commercial partners to deliver products and servies that our customers want and as a result also grow revenues that we then reinvest in improving the transport network.”
Michelle De Pasquale, commercial director for InPost UK, said: “London commuters will benefit hugely from the incorporation of a range of Click & Collect options in and around the stations with the inclusion of our lockers enabling convenient collections and returns for online shoppers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week 365 days a year.
“Establishing a nationwide network of conveniently sited parcel lockers, accessible 24/7/365, is at the heart of our business and working with TFL is a welcome addition to this.”
