Happy first birthday Doddle!

Doddle are celebrating their first birthday with 43 stores and over 85,000 people signed up to the service.

With capacity for over 19 million parcels per year, Doddle has increased the supply chain’s capacity to deal with growing parcel volumes and peak periods such as Black Friday next month, which is predicted to be the first £1 billion online shopping day.

Doddle has also established partnerships in the last year with 25 retail partners including Amazon, ASOS, Missguided, River Island and New Look as retailers look to extend the range of delivery options offered to consumers. Of these potentially Amazon will have the greatest impact on Doddle’s growth, especially as Amazon have shut down alternative Click & Collect locations this year.

Since the first store opened one year ago in Waterloo, Doddle has created 350 jobs and its 57,541 square foot network stretches from Glasgow to Brighton. I like the Doddle promise, it’s just a shame that there’s still no Doddle store within shouting distance of my home. However realistically I’m not a regular commuter and that’s where Doddle really comes into it’s own with their train station locations, but a new Doddle Neighbour service coming in 2016 might change all that.

Tim Robinson, Doddle CEO told us “We’re learnt a lot since launching Doddle last year and are proud of the milestones we have achieved in the run up to our first birthday. Despite our success to date there is still a lot of work to be done fighting against our biggest competitor, home delivery“.

Looking back at 2015

• The nationwide roll-out has used over 344 litres of purple paint
• Cosmetics, clothing and shoes are the most commonly sent items
• Dog shoes, a chandelier and ventriloquist dummy have passed through Doddle’s doors
• The 5,597 metres of bubble wrap used to protect goods sent by Doddle customers is enough to have covered Oxford Street twice

What’s new for 2016

For customers who are short on time to send or return unwanted items, Doddle launched its ‘Runner’ app with specially trained Runners, who collect parcels from customers wherever they are within the hour. Currently restricted to London, Doddle will expand into more areas in 2016 and extend the range of services offered through Doddle Runners.

Next year will also see the launch of Doddle Neighbour, where Doddle will pay people to take in parcels for local residents. The service is being trialled in Bromley in October, expanding into new areas later in 2016. An extension of Doddle’s existing services, Neighbour will give Doddle greater geographic reach and provide customers with greater choice over where and when they send and receive parcels.

To make use of Doddle’s service, shoppers can sign up for free in store, at doddle.com or download the free Doddle app for iOS and Android.