// Despite the economic shock, coronavirus has brought with it accelerating growth in e-commerce transactions, with Australia experiencing a 109% growth in the first week of May 2020 compared to the same period in 2019…
‘Is retail dead or just different?‘, we ask in another article this week.
Online retail has soared over the past few months, for obvious reasons. The growth has been so strong that many etailers are taking advantage of flexible collection points, open 24/7, to keep up with consumer demand.
Australian courier start-up Sendle, who currently have a partnership with Australian parcel collection point network Hubbed, report that online retailers are dropping 39 percent of customer parcels to collection points outside of 9am-5pm working hours.
“Since offering Hubbed pick-up and drop-off locations almost two years ago, we’ve seen an increasing number of our small business customers using the service because it offers so much flexibility – some locations are open 24/7,” said James Chin Moddy, CEO of Sendle.
“In 2019, we saw a 20 per cent increase in people using the Hubbed network both during and after business hours.”
The recent spike – as a result of COVID-19 – saw buyers move online as opposed to in-store. Many small businesses are working overtime to fulfill orders, so it really helps when they can organise dispatch and delivery both after hours and on weekends.
“Most of the locations within the Hubbed network are queue-free, which makes it a safer option,” said James. “And Sendle also has contactless delivery at this time.”
Along with Sendle, Hubbed also has partnerships with couriers such as TOLL, DHL, TNT and CouriersPlease.
“Hubbed has enabled time-poor businesses greater flexibility in their parcel drop-off and collection schedules,” said Hubbed Founder and CEO David McLean.
“Online retailers that don’t have a storefront also benefit by using our parcel network of more than 2000 locations as ‘Click & Collect’ locations.”
“As a collection network, we can also help carriers, such as Sendle, reduce their last-mile costs and their environmental footprint by enabling them to drop parcels off at centralised local ‘hubs’ rather than individual addresses.”
Local collections spots in Perth include BP Fuel Stations and 7-Elevens – most of which are open 24/7 – along with Repco Garages and various newsagents and pharmacies.
“It is this level of convenience that has given tens of thousands of small businesses across Australia an affordable and sustainable alternative to door-to-door delivery, and customers more choice in their experience”, David said.
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Featured image: rupixen.com
