Royal Mail is attempting to tackle the growing issue of delivering online orders with the launch of a trial which offers consumers the chance to pick up parcels from electronic lockers at mainline stations.
The operator is to roll-out its ‘iBox’ solution at 17 mainline train stations in London and across six other key cities, in conjunction with ByBox.
The move follows the roll-out of Collect+, a parcel service available at 3,500 local shops which promotes its out-of-hours offer.
Described as an “exciting new innovation in home delivery in the UK”, the iBox service will be tested for six months to initially gauge success.
Shoppers will be notified via email or SMS as soon as their items are delivered, and will have 24/7 access to their items, which are collected by entering a unique PIN code provided in the SMS at the iBox.
A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We are continually looking at ways of providing innovative solutions that help retailers to give their shoppers even greater choice over the delivery of their orders.”
In Germany alone there are almost 3,000 such units, with 29% of consumers saying their availability had increased their online shopping activities.
Locker banks are also being used by various postal administrations in Norway, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, France, Poland and Turkey, among others.
Royal Mail has chosen to work with MetaPack for the scheme and the iBox delivery option will be available on the Royal Mail Tracked 2-3 day service, so it can be easily bolted-on for retailers already offering this delivery option.
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