CollectPlus have been looking at their services and how better to help retailers serve today’s ever more demanding consumers. They’re introducing new faster services, the first of a kind rolling month on month loyalty bonus and a new tarrif.
New faster 2 day service
From 5th June 2013, CollectPlus customers will have two parcel services to choose from; the new 2 working day Standard Service and the existing (re-named) 3-5 working day Economy service.
With parcels typically delivered in 2 working days, the new CollectPlus Standard service will be perfect for customers who have items that need to be delivered quickly. This will be an ideal service to fit eBay’s designator as a standard service and CollectPlus’ existing service marries eBay’s economy service designator.
Costs for the CollectPlus new standard service will be will be: Light (0-2kg) £5.59; Regular (2-5kg) £7.19; and Heavy (5-10kg) £9.29 (Prices quoted include VAT).
This service follows CollectPlus’ ‘one size fits all’ approach to sizing with a current size limit of 50x30x30cm for items sent using the service. We hear that these dimensions are being revised and will be increased in the near future so watch out for further announcements from CollectPlus.
CollectPlus Volume Rewards
From the start of June 2013, CollectPlus is introducing a new reward scheme for customers who buy 50 parcel labels or more from the CollectPlus website each month.
As a ‘pay as you go’ reward scheme, there are no contracts to sign or volume thresholds to commit to. CollectPlus customers will automatically qualify for a Bronze, Silver or Gold volume reward as long as they buy at least 50 parcel labels from the CollectPlus website each month.
The Volume Rewards scheme has three tiers (Bronze, Silver and Gold) with discounts of up to 10%. I really like this concept – there’s no commitment, it’s simply a loyalty discount where the more you spend the more you save the following month and is ideal for small businesses who may not be able to commit to larger regular volumes.
Changes to CollectPlus 3-5 working day Economy Service
The bad news is that CollectPlus will be increasing its Economy parcel service prices on the 5th June 2013.
Revised CollectPlus Economy Service prices from the 5th June will be: Light (0-2kg) £4.89; Regular (2-5kg) £6.19; and Heavy (5-10kg) £8.29
Whilst the CollectPlus has held off raising prices for this service since its launch in 2010, like many other businesses in the UK, they say that they have seen operational costs including fuel and transport, rise to the point that they can no longer continue to absorb all of these increases.
CollectPlus highlight their commitment to provide their customers with a great value service through the combination of:
- A fully tracked service that comes with £50 compensation cover as standard
- One standard charge throughout the UK – so no extra charges for delivery to Northern Ireland and the highlands and islands of Scotland
- A network of over 5,250 parcel stores that are open when customers need them – early ‘til late, 7 days a week
- A Volume Reward scheme that offers up to 10% off the cost of sending a parcel when customers buy 50 parcel labels a month or more on the CollectPlus website.
- An upcoming increase in our ‘one size fits all’ parcel sizing that will allow customers to send even larger parcels
They add that their Economy Service is still highly competitive against Royal Mail 2nd Class; for example, a 2kg parcel label is more than £3 cheaper (vs the Royal Mail 2nd Class medium size parcel price) when sent with CollectPlus. That’s £4.89 inc. VAT vs £8.00 with the Royal Mail 2nd Class.
Price rises are never welcome and those sellers who will be harder hit are those sending heavier parcels through the CollectPlus service.
Introducing Store Feedback
Customer feedback on the service CollectPlus stores provide is crucial, they say, in helping to ensure all customers have a good experience. As such, customers will shortly start to receive emails asking for their feedback on their store experience when they dropped off or collected a parcel.
The process is quick and easy and customers will be asked to rate their store experience between 1 and 5 stars (with 1 being very poor and 5 being excellent). Customers will also have the opportunity to leave additional comments and all feedback will be anonymous. CollectPlus will not be publishing the feedback but customers will be able to leave their name and contact details should they want a response.
By introducing this element, CollectPlus will be able to ensure that poor store experiences are acted upon and good ones recognised within their network.
13 Responses
The weird thing is though, if you currently purchase a label from their website its for a 24hr delivery, not the advertised 3-5 day delivery, so basically the price is going up by £2.25 + VAT
How much will the cost of sending to the shop be after these changes? Currently it is 3.49 for 10KG
It all started very well, but delivery times have slipped, and the price increase means its back to Royal Mail for us- we can’t do with having parcels left on doorsteps.
Despite all the good corporate marketing speak, I think Collect + are raising their prices because the dominant player, RM , have raised their prices to crazy levels. From a business perspective I understand this, but from a customer perspective it leaves a very bad taste. What’s the betting MyHermes are also reviewing their pricing structure as we speak. There is absolutely no point in using Collect + now. Get a RM OBA if you have the volume, or use MyHermes whilst they are still at their current price levels. Do Collect + have a USP now? No.
Their biggest failing appears to be that they do not actually collect the parcel, you have to deliver it to their depot or designated collection point, in my case some considerable distance away, If I had enough traffic to warrant delivering to them I would be able to negotiate a contract price with RM. My Hermes appear to offer a choice, deliver to their depot or they will pick it up for a nominal 50 pence extra, why does Collect plus not do the same? In any case the last parcel I received from Collect plus was actually delivered by Yodel!
Sadly this will again hit sellers of small light parcels that are just too big to go as RM small. We had to suffer RM putting them up from £2.60 second class to over £5.00. £3.99 with collectplus is acceptable £4.89 isn’t. The comparison against RM medium size isn’t the problem. The problem is NO-ONE will now be offering an acceptable price on items over 8cm wide but very lightweight.
@John Temple-Shurety:
Collect plus are a joint venture between yodel and paypoint
I think the real story here is they have seen RM put up their prices, so there is room to put up prices. I recommended them for my customers to return goods, but I think I will move more towards RM Tracked returns – this is a good contract service.
Yodel offered me £3.15 for a contract service, so they are probably getting under £3. I think they will lose alot of business.
Gold – if you are seriously using Collect+ for 150 parcels a month, just go to Yodel direct they will give you a price of anything between £3 and £4.
If my local Collect+ courier is anything to go by, I wouldn’t use them if they were free. He’s grumpy and rude, leaves his car in the middle of the street with loud music blasting out of his stereo and he slammed a delicate item being delivered to me down hard against my stone step (it was damaged too).
One time I queried a delivery when the label said ‘1 of 2’ and he only had one box, and he shrugged and said ‘it must have got lost mate’ (it hadn’t, it came later in a Yodel van).
Certainly not the kind of image I want to project on my customers.