InPost UK partners with Lidl to improve convenience for shoppers

InPost has rolled out its delivery and collection services to 24 Lidl stores to increase its UK footprint and allow consumers to maximise their shopping trips as well as to help create more environmentally sustainable deliveries.

The new locations include sites in London, Birmingham and Manchester and allow shoppers to collect online orders before or after their shop.

Customers can also use the lockers to send parcels, meaning they can collect and return items during their weekly shop rather than having to make two separate journeys. Maximising trips in this manner is of particular importance to reduce unnecessary travel with Britain still on lockdown due to the pandemic. Lockers are also a contact-free delivery method, allowing customers to avoid human interaction and maintain social distancing.

Moreover, combining errands and choosing parcel lockers instead of home delivery also benefits the environment by requiring fewer journeys for both consumers and couriers, therefore reducing carbon dioxide emissions, improving air quality and lowering global warming potential by up to three times that of conventional deliveries, InPost pointed out.

Initial customer feedback on the lockers at Lidl stores has been positive, with nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents rating the experience ‘very good’ and more than two-fifths (44%) making a purchase while collecting a parcel, confirming combining errands as an advantage.

Of those polled, 85% said using the InPost locker was the reason for their visit to Lidl, meaning that as well as introducing more consumers to the convenience of parcel lockers, the pilot has also driven greater footfall to the stores.

The scheme has also improved shopper perception of Lidl, with two-thirds of respondents rating it as more modern, understanding and innovative as a result of the partnership. 

More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents saw Lidl as an ideal place for lockers, with a third discovering the store because of their trip to the locker. Looking ahead, a fifth (22%) would shop more often at Lidl, even if they weren’t using a locker.

InPost said it is confident it can help create more environmentally sustainable and convenient deliveries by reducing last mile, single-drop courier deliveries and encouraging consumers to collect and drop off at lockers through more accessible locations.

Jason Tavaria, CEO of InPost, commented: “With current lockdown guidance limiting how and when people can leave the house, it is vital that they are able to maximise each trip and not make unnecessary additional journeys.

"Installing delivery lockers at one of the UK’s best-loved supermarkets allows them to do this and also provides a useful, contact-free outbound resource at a time when many Post Offices are closed. The positive feedback we’ve already had from customers shows they’re open to change, with trip-chaining becoming more common and demonstrating the demand for greater integration between how people work, shop and play.”

In addition to the partnership with Lidl, InPost UK has already partnered with carriers such as Hermes, DHL Express and DX and retailers such as Boohoo, JD Group and Holland and Barrett.