Royal Mail has invested £2.6 million in extended pick-up times for parcels to provide moreconvenience to customers ordering online or from a catalogue.
As part of the investment, the working hours of around 650 Royal Mail delivery offices – almosthalf of its nationwide network of 1,400 sites – will be extended to 8pm on Wednesday evenings and2pm on Saturdays. This will make it easier for customers who are not at home during the day to pickup their items, the postal operator said.
From today, more than 200 delivery offices will open their doors until 8pm and around 350offices will join the programme later in the summer. This follows a successful trial at 100delivery offices in May.
Mike Brown, Royal Mail’s Fulfilment Director, said: “The majority of items ordered online aredelivered first time, but this investment by will help people who are not at home during the day toreceive their item, in cases where it is too big to go through the letterbox or needs asignature.”
He added: “With online sales continuing to grow, this initiative demonstrates our determinationto develop products and services that help both retailers and their customers have greater choiceand control over the delivery of items.”
The investment in extended opening hours builds on the choices already available to people whoare not at home during the day. For example, Royal Mail customers can arrange a redelivery to theirhome or a neighbour or ask for items to be taken to a Post Office branch through a service calledLocal Collect.
David Smith, Managing Director of IMRG, the industry body for online retailing, commented: “As aresult of the close partnership between Royal Mail and the online retail industry, shoppers nowhave more control over the delivery of their items than ever before.”
According to Clare Gilmartin, Managing Director of eBay UK, flexible delivery options are hugelyimportant to the digital economy as more and more people choose to shop online or via a mobileshopping app for the convenience it provides.
“Online businesses equally rely on dependable and flexible delivery services to maintain a goodreputation and retain the loyalty of customers. The majority of the 140,000 businesses that sellvia eBay use Royal Mail as their delivery provider and the extended opening hours announced todaywill be welcomed by the small and medium sized online business community,” she concluded.
