COMPANY INFO
Founded: 1984
Headquarters: Dublin, Ireland
Employees: Over 9000
An Post Commerce’s Reach Conference event will take place on 1 October.
Tell us about your company.
An Post Commerce is Ireland’s expert parcels delivery company. We build and provide tailored delivery and returns solutions that work our customers, and their customers.
What is your USP?
An Post Commerce delivers nationwide, 6 days a week, including evening delivery. We are customer focused offering simple, flexible and convenient delivery and returns solutions supported by a network of 3,000 vehicles including electric vehicles and 4,200 delivery staff. An Post processes c. 25m parcels annually and is the first Irish carrier to offer 3 delivery attempts as standard.
How do you deliver on this USP?
Our focus is on delivering operational excellence and the highest service quality levels possible for our clients and their customers. In order to achieve the standards we aspire towards we work with our clients to develop a service model that works for their businesses. We actively adapt our model and innovate over time so that what we do and how we do it responds to their needs and ensures consistently great customer experiences with their brands.
What do you see as the key challenges for retailers right now?
As we head into autumn, retailers are preparing for peak. With the Covid effect, there is a new question of what will the volumes be. Previously they’ve been able to forecast growth based on historical demand. Covid has created that inflated demand and made this prediction much harder.
How are you preparing for this?
We are preparing for a super peak, essentially estimating that peak volumes this year will be up 50 to 75% from last year. We are scaling for the higher amount (75%). We are in process of installing a new packets sortation machine having already successfully installed a parcels equivalent in 2019: this new machine will be able to double processing capacity to 300,000 packets per day.
We’re also moving last-mile drivers from bikes to electric vehicles as well as using bigger vans, so they have capacity to serve those high-density urban areas such as in Dublin.
How have you collaborated with retailers?
During peak we’ve been working with all our large retailers closely to understand how we can flex capacity while giving reasonable promise to their customers. It’s been a conversation where we find the balance between speed and capacity. If they want next day they can get a smaller amount of capacity, but if they are willing to wait a few more days they can have more.
They are prioritising capacity over speed; before Covid-19 the focus was all on speed. There is now certainly a trend out there towards greater flexibility on speed.
Tell us about your upcoming event.
Now more than ever we are living in a continuously evolving world, with the impact of Covid 19 and Brexit, businesses across Ireland and the UK are having to adapt at a speed never previously experienced. According to Forbes Magazine “It would have taken between 4 and 6 years to get eCommerce to the levels that we saw in May if the growth continued at the same levels it was at for the past few years,”
An Post Commerce have demonstrated how they have pivoted their business to not only survive but thrive in the ‘new normal’. The success that An Post Commerce has achieved over the last number of months provides a unique opportunity to us to showcase how we have changes and how we can work with these brand to grow their business eCommerce.
This virtual conference will deliver the latest updates, insights and tools to help businesses navigate the choppy seas now and the unchartered waters ahead. Speaking to the emerging future of eCommerce and acts as a call to arms for businesses to embrace the future and work with An Post Commerce to provide a high quality delivery service to their Irish Customers.
The event is aimed at our target of large businesses in both UK and Ireland with whom we want to provide a delivery service for, within Ireland.
What is the programme for the event?
We have two speakers discussing direct mail. Katie Townsely from Accenture will be discussing the importance of direct mail and how they have used it in the US to stimulate growth.
Direct mail expert Patrick Collister will be discussing the importance of creativity in combining the physical medium of mail with digital, through the likes of QR codes and augmented reality.
Jenny Fleiss, one of the founders of rent the runway, will tell us about how she managed to move from a digital start-up to a multi-million dollar business, and the power of branding.
Additionally, our director of international operations Cyril McGrane will talk about how Brexit will affect business between the UK and Ireland and how to prepare.
The Reach Conference takes place on 1 October. Register here.
