You can join the parcel shop revolution with the Local Letterbox franchise
We’ve all been there. Arriving home from work, pushing open the front door and catching sight of it: a flash of red among the mail on the doormat. ‘Sorry we missed you’ says the card, underestimating the gravity of its actions. Get ready for a lengthy Saturday morning recovery of your parcel consignment at the not so local carrier depot.
The online market place is exploding. Growing at a rate of 18 per cent year on year, it’s already a billion pound business, set to get bigger as players like Facebook enter the game for the first time. But the existing carriers can’t keep up. A solution is needed to capture the millions of pounds of profit lost in the current delivery network. By joining Local Letterbox as a franchisee, you’ll be a vital part of the transformation and reap the rewards of a solution inundated with new consumers.
Capitalise
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For you, it’s an opportunity to capitalise on a growth sector in need of change. Too many consumers have a poor experience with home deliveries. With the market set to grow 100 per cent by 2018, opportunities are rising for businesses to offer more attractive delivery options to the online consumer.
Here’s where you come in. Becoming a franchisee means you’ll operate your own Local Letterbox shop. Conveniently located in high demographic areas, you will be the focal point for parcel collections and returns, and be the trusted alternative delivery address for the thousands of consumers in your postcode area who work 9-5 and know they will not be home to sign for their online purchases.
This network of dedicated, secure, carrier neutral parcel shops is the first of its kind. Alternative corner shop solutions have gradually appeared, but each only partly tackle the problem and suffer from restrictions in location, security or capacity, and being limited to one carrier means inconvenience for multiple sourced purchases. But Local Letterbox has a solution for everyone.
Retailers are approaching a market of busy workers and successfully converting them with the 24-hour benefits of shopping online. The trend is set to continue and it is reasonable for the online business community to expect a threefold increase in market share in the next 10 years.
Yet in this profitable industry there is one underlying threat - failed deliveries are rising at an unacceptable rate. In the UK over 22 per cent of parcels end up being returned to the retailer every year. The figures confirm how frustrating parcel delivery can become. With 44 per cent of us at work between 9-5 Monday to Friday, the ‘Sorry we missed you’ card is all too common.
To put it into perspective, the industry loses £850 million in failed deliveries. Failed deliveries mean dissatisfied consumers opting for alternative supplier choices. That means retailers are searching for a viable solution to a problem costing millions of pounds every year. The scale of failed deliveries and their cost to important stakeholders confirm the essentiality of the Local Letterbox concept.
Local Letterbox is a dedicated carrier neutral service that fits around the consumer’s everyday life. In short, the solution provides a national network of secure, branded shops with uniformed staff devoted completely to parcels.
Retailers are happy because they keep ‘the satisfied consumer’, while carriers benefit from being able to cut labour and vehicle costs on deliveries and returns. Most importantly, the consumer regains control of collection in a secure and convenient location and is more likely to shop with the retailer again.
Marketplace
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If you’ve received an online purchase in the last year, it was among the one billion parcels delivered in the UK - a figure that means about 13 per cent of all retail sales are now conducted online, totalling £4 billion per annum. With website transactions increasing so rapidly, it’s no secret that physical stores are beginning to cut stock and operate as showrooms. The Economist Intelligence Unit forecasts that about 30 per cent of all retail sales would be online by 2020.
According to Financial Mail editor Lisa Buckingham: “Internet shopping has educated consumers to expect almost unlimited choice and price. This is not good news for traditional retailers. Many young people now buy two or three of the same item in different sizes and then return the ones that do not fit. Buying and returning is part and parcel of modern shopping.”
However, in any rapid growth sector there is the risk of short fallings. In the case of the ecommerce industry, analysts predict that the parcel carriers that deliver all these parcels will be pushed to their limit by as early as 2016.
The issue of failed delivery is a serious and recognised threat to national online commerce. Consumers’ working lifestyles simply do not fit with the carriers’ traditional daily round. This results in non delivery and consumer frustration in obtaining the items they have bought and paid for. Such frustration can damage a retailer’s ‘satisfied consumer’ relationship and drive the consumer to an alternate retailer. Retailers are searching for a solution that will guarantee first time delivery and solve the growing problem of returns.
The problem, in a nutshell:
* 22 per cent of deliveries are returned to the retailer.
* 18 per cent of orders are falling short of consumer expectations for delivery.
* 23 per cent of consumers think about changing retailer due to bad delivery experiences.
The figures confirm how frustrating parcel delivery can become. With 44 per cent of us at work between 9-5 Monday to Friday, the ‘Sorry we missed you’ card is all too common.
Local Letterbox offers a service that allows the consumer to choose when and where to pick up their parcel. The consumer is back in control and they will never miss another parcel.
The company’s shops are becoming the alternative, safe, secure, convenient delivery location for everyday busy people. They are open a minimum of six days a week, 15 hours a day from 7am-10pm with smart, motivated, uniformed staff.
The consumer can send, collect and return packages entirely through the dedicated Local Letterbox network. As 80 per cent of consumers express a wish to sign for their goods, every single parcel has proof of delivery. UK and European destinations are included.
Local Letterbox parcel shops are placed in high density urban and rural population areas similar to the Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local geographic models, enabling the consumer to use the service while going about their daily life. Local Letterbox’s national rollout is projected to cover 1,000-plus parcel shops during 2013.
Ultimately, failed delivery costs are avoided, the consumer pays nothing to Local Letterbox, the carrier cuts excess costs and becomes more profitable and the retailer retains a happy consumer for the next order.
Offer
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Being part of the Local Letterbox franchise is straightforward and the company will provide everything you need to run the shop. A small deposit secures your postcode preference, with future expansion available as a result of trading volume. Local Letterbox will then guide you through the shop lease, fit out and requirements, install the IT and train you on the values, operational requirements and deliverables that are essential ingredients of a national franchise.
For you it is an opportunity to capitalise on a growth sector in need of a shake up.
