Businesses are looking to offer greater convenience to consumers and are seeking new methods to improve efficiency and services on offer. Many customers are demanding ever quicker and more flexible ways of delivery to meet their time poor lives. In order to meet these growing demands, those companies supplying both consumers and businesses need to consider a holistic solution, and look at ways to drive efficiencies across their whole supply chain.
This revolution in delivery services is most strongly evidenced by this year's Royal Mail seasonal trading figures. Over the Christmas period, the company's parcel volumes remained flat, despite a reported 19% increase in online shopping over the same time frame according to the British Retail Consortium. Therefore the deliveries meeting this huge increase in web purchase have clearly been fulfilled by their competitors. The question is which companies? Industry insight demonstrates that this gap in the market is being filled by those logistics companies that have been busily adapting their services to the 21st century retail model. Next-day delivery, click & collect, locker pick-up points; these are developments that have won over the public and have driven growth outside of Royal Mail's control of the UK delivery market.
Locker collection points in particular are an exciting development in the delivery sector. They allow for a much more efficient delivery process to businesses and consumers alike, allowing users to collect their goods at a time and place of their choosing - whether a supermarket, business park or rail station. To allow complete efficiency in getting parcels from A to B, ByBox, for example, make our lockers accessible 24/7 and operate on every day of the year, making locker networks the delivery method of choice for those looking for a rapid and effective delivery service.
In the retail sector, we're seeing big brands becoming ever more responsive to the needs of the modern consumer. Many supermarkets are now providing grocery collection lockers as part of a growing click-and-collect offering. ByBox's partnership with Waitrose allows customers to collect goods from temperature-controlled collection points saving time for both the retailer and consumer. Lockers are also finding their way into transport routes like petrol stations and railway hubs, enabling users to collect and return on the way to and from work on their commute.
From a business-to-business perspective, many companies are also taking advantage of the growing locker trade to manage their deliveries.Companies operating across a whole range of fields from reprographics & IT to utilities are benefiting from using a locker network by being able to supply parts to their engineers across the country pre-8am. These companies are also able to tap into the resourceful logistics network that comes with this such as the real time tracking of parts which can drive down inefficiency.
To that end, creating an effective supply chain is paramount in improving the process of delivery and creating a modern and relevant business. The chain needs to be managed from end to end, from picking and packing through to distribution, returns and repairs; something only achievable though smart logistics, which we do through our ThinventoryTM system. Companies which use services in this way therefore have the advantage of not only saving time and money through knowing precisely where items in the chain are, but will be able to track their entire life cycle through the system.
Click-&-collect, locker-based retail and smart logistics is set to grow hugely; so far we've only seen the tip of the ice berg of what is possible. As consumer and business demand ever increasing efficiency in the delivery and supply of products and services within the supply chain, incorporating an end-to-end full supply chain partner will be essential to creating a modern business that can meet the increasing technological and consumer demands of the 21st century.
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