Easy returns
Customers in Manchester have been enjoying the convenience of their popular parcel postbox – one of the busiest in the UK.
The box, which is situated outside Manchester Mail Centre on Oldham Road, is so popular that it receives around 2,500 parcels a week and has to be emptied seven or eight times a day to keep up with demand. At its peak, the postbox was receiving around 500 parcels a day.
The popularity of the postbox is driven by a mix of local retailers and online marketplace sellers sending out orders to their customers, and online shoppers returning items for refunds.
Small businesses and marketplace sellers have been able to use the boxes in the same way as they post a letter, providing additional levels of convenience. Local entrepreneurs simply need to go online to buy pre-paid postage from our Click & Drop labelling system before posting their parcels in the box.
During lockdown, the parcel postboxes have provided added flexibility to online sellers who might be running a business in their spare time and not keeping regular office hours. The 24/7 access has enabled many customers to post items during unsociable hours when other outlets may be closed.
Our parcel postboxes have also given online shoppers an easy way to return items bought during lockdown that may not have been quite what they wanted. We have seen a 25 per cent increase in returns traffic, in comparison with the same time last year as customers reflect on some of their lockdown purchases.
Many retailers extended return periods during lockdown, giving customers more time to make a decision on their purchases. The rise of the home fitting room has been given further momentum as many bricks and mortar stores continue to seal off their own fitting rooms.
The launch of our parcel postboxes last year was one of the biggest innovations in parcels in 160 years and came in response to growing demand for parcel services, and an increase in online buying and selling in the UK. So far, we have launched 1,400 parcel postboxes across the country.
Chief commercial officer, Nick Landon, said: ‘The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown has driven major changes in consumer habits, including the way we shop.
‘Manchester is one example of how local businesses, marketplace sellers and online shoppers returning unwanted items are using our parcel postboxes to post parcels both simply and conveniently, through a fast and easy local drop off.’
Parcel postboxes
We introduced the UK’s first ever parcel postboxes in locations across the country, last year. The wide scale introduction of parcel postboxes was one of the biggest innovations in parcels since the launch of Parcel Post in 1883 and is one of the ways we are looking to make our service more flexible and convenient for our customers.
The parcel postboxes enable pre-paid parcels to be posted through securely designed parcel postboxes, in the same way letters are posted.
