Massive news out this morning – you can now drop off Royal Mail parcels using the Collect+ network of local stores, which are typically open for much longer hours than most Post Offices – some from 7am to 11pm. Plus they’re open at weekends when Royal Mail depots and Post Offices are shut.
This a new partnership between Royal Mail and PayPoint to provide its customers with access to the Collect+ network at thousands of local stores across the UK.
The move is part of Royal Mail’s strategy to continue to make sending and receiving parcels as convenient as possible by adding more choice. Mind you, while Royal Mail Delivery Depots continue to have stupidly short opening hours, they’ve been offering free collections at home for up to five items a day for month – even a 2nd class letter can (currently) be collected for free by your friendly Postie.
Royal Mail customers will be able to use the Collect+ network to drop off parcels, either returns or items where they have paid for postage online. They can print the label at home or bring a QR code into the store.
The multi-year agreement is expected to start rolling out from March and will extend to 5,000 Collect+ points by the summer, with services expanding in the future to enable customers to also collect online purchases.
Royal Mail say that there is increasing demand from customers for convenient ways to drop off parcels, with around 50% of all Royal Mail non-account sales now online. The 5,000 Collect+ locations add to Royal Mail’s existing strong partnership with Post Office and their 11,500 branches, plus 1,200 Royal Mail Customer Service Points and 1,200 24/7 parcel postboxes currently available for customers to drop off items.
The Collect+ partnership will provide customers with the benefits of the full range of Royal Mail’s online postage options combined with a significantly expanded network of drop off locations with convenient opening hours including evenings and weekends. It comes at a time when locations such as convenience stores and lockers have become amongst the most common places people choose to have parcels delivered other than their home.
This partnership is an important part of Royal Mail’s strategy to make our services even more convenient for customers and to give them the widest possible choice of where and when they can send parcels. As consumer preferences have evolved, Royal Mail has already opened up a variety of new ways for customers to access its services, including more online postage options through our website and app, 24/7 parcel postboxes and collection from home through Royal Mail Parcel Collect.
– Martin Seidenberg, Group Chief Executive, International Distributions Services
We are delighted that Collect+ will be playing a key role in our partnership with Royal Mail. As consumer channel shift continues to move towards Out of Home, our fantastic retailer partners will now have an even greater opportunity to serve the needs of their customers in communities across the UK through our leading Out of Home network.
We remain fully committed to investing further in the in-store consumer experience, through technology and operational support for our retailer partners, as well as continuing to grow our Collect+ network to service the strong growth in this area.
– Nick Wiles, CEO, PayPoint
