DHL Express France, in association with local partner and last-mile specialist Relais Colis, has launched a new online service called Click & Bring, designed to simplify consumer parcel shipping.
Aimed at the microbusiness and 2C segments, it allows customers to complete all of the formalities for the sending of a package to destinations abroad and in France, in just a few clicks on the dhlexpress.fr website, while also offering the possibility to deposit it in one of the 5,200 collection points which make up Relais Colis' French network.
“DHL Click & Bring constitutes a new stage in the development of DHL Express France. Following B2B and B2C, we have taken parcel delivery services in a new direction – CtoC or CtoB and also for microbusinesses. Our objective is to facilitate their international shipments in the same way as we have made deliveries more flexible,” explained DHL Express France's president and CEO, Philippe Prétat.
“DHL Click & Bring is tailored to the digital age and enables shippers to purchase transport services online in the same way they would purchase an airline ticket. With complete autonomy in the preparation of their parcel, customers decide the best moment and the most practical place to deposit their parcels without having to count on courier personnel to pick them up. It represents a veritable response to the challenges of mobility and urban logistics.”
Click & Bring parcels are delivered in 24 hours in Europe and in 48 hours elsewhere in the world.
“We've set ourselves the objective to reach 100,000 parcels with the DHL Click & Bring service by the end of 2020,” Prétat added.
For his part, Relais Colis CEO, Jean-Sébastien Leridon, commented: “The C2C delivery market has in the space of several years become a real challenge for our sector. Relais Colis already offers services in France to private consumers and microbusinesses via our network of 5,200 collection points. Thanks to this partnership, we are going to extend this expertise on the international front in putting two of the key components of our DNA at the service of DHL's customers – proximity and innovation.”
Quoted in the French media, Prétat said: “We estimate that parcels will have an average weight of between two and five kilos and an average value of €60.”
Customers will be able to choose between different delivery options ranging from express to standard as well as printing their own parcel label. From the first quarter of 2020, a dematerialised shipment document in the form of a QR code will be available to be presented at Relais Colis collection points. Other features of Click & Bring are the real time tracking of parcels and alerts by e-mail and text.
DHL Express France claims to have a market share of more than 35% of France's international express market, handling more than 36 million parcels annually. Driven by the growth in e-commerce, volumes increased by 7% last year on 2017. The upward trend has been confirmed in 2019 with volumes increasing by 10% in the first eight months of the year on the same period in 2018.
As for Relais Colis, which is part-owned by DHL, it is planning to extend its network of collection points across France from 5,200 currently to 8,000 by 2021. According to the company, 83% of the French population are situated less than 10 minutes away from a Relais Colis outlet by car while 99% of Parisians are less than one kilometre away by foot.
For the past three years, customers of DHL Express France have been able to pick up their parcels at Relais Colis collection points.
