TNT Express has extended its customer services in Italy and France with a new home deliveryservice and an iPhone app for mobile customers.
In Italy, the express operator has signed a delivery deal with Fashion District, which runsthree large factory outlet shopping centres across the country. Under the agreement, customersbuying goods at the Fashion District at Valmontone, south-east of Rome, will be able to drop offtheir purchases at a new TNT Point counter at the shopping centre.
The goods are then delivered by TNT Express to the purchaser’s home address, whether in Italy orabroad. The company will also take care of VAT refunds for shoppers resident outside the EU.
According to Fashion District, its three factory outlet centres, comprising 300 stores over atotal space of 100,000 sqm, drew 11 million visitors in 2009. The Valmontone centre, which openedin 2003, features more than 150 stores on a site covering 45,000 sqm.
TNT Express Italy runs a network of 1,500 TNT Points across the country enabling businesses andconsumers to ship packages of up to 12kg or to pick up small shipments.
In France, TNT Express launched an iPhone app on December 16. French customers can use themobile application to check the status and location of their shipment, are pro-actively informed ofdelivery times and can check the location of the nearest Relais Colis collection and drop-offpoint.
The new service is targeted in particular at e-commerce customers who have ordered goods onlinethat are being delivered by TNT. Up to four million iPhones have so far been sold in France out ofthe 50 million worldwide, the company said. A version for smartphones using the Android operatingsystem will follow in January 2011.
