Royal Mail has teamed up with PayPoint to provide its customers access to the Collect+ network at thousands of local stores across the UK. The partnership will enable consumers to drop off parcels, either returns or items where they have paid for postage online.
Consumers can either print the label at home or bring a QR code into the store. It comes as IMRG reports that locations such as convenience stores and lockers have become amongst the most common places people choose to have parcels delivered, other than their home.
The multi-year agreement is expected to start rolling out from March, and will extend to 5,000 Collect+ points by the summer. Royal Mail added services will expand in the future to enable customers to also collect online purchases.
Martin Seidenberg, group chief executive of International Distributions Services, said: “This partnership is an important part of Royal Mail’s strategy to make our services even more convenient for customers and to give them the widest possible choice of where and when they can send parcels.
“As consumer preferences have evolved, Royal Mail has already opened up a variety of new ways for customers to access its services, including more online postage options through our website and app, 24/7 parcel postboxes and collection from home through Royal Mail Parcel Collect.”
There is increasing demand from customers for convenient ways to drop off parcels, with around 50% of all Royal Mail non-account sales now online. The 5,000 Collect+ locations add to Royal Mail’s existing partnership with Post Office and their 11,500 branches, plus 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points and 1,200 24/7 parcel postboxes currently available for customers to drop off items.
The Collect+ partnership will provide customers with the benefits of the full range of Royal Mail’s online postage options combined with a significantly expanded network of drop off locations with convenient opening hours including evenings and weekends.
Nick Wiles, CEO of PayPoint, added: “We are delighted that Collect+ will be playing a key role in our partnership with Royal Mail. As consumer channel shift continues to move towards Out of Home, our fantastic retailer partners will now have an even greater opportunity to serve the needs of their customers in communities across the UK through our leading Out of Home network.”
“We remain fully committed to investing further in the in-store consumer experience, through technology and operational support for our retailer partners, as well as continuing to grow our Collect+ network to service the strong growth in this area.”
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