A very valued customer
The Very Group is the UK’s largest integrated digital retailer and financial services provider, with a long history of distance selling, having started with catalogue brands Kays and Littlewoods.
Its retail brands, Very.co.uk, Littlewoods.com and Littlewoods Ireland, sell everything from clothing to computer games, and beds to beanbags. Today, it’s using technology to improve customer experience – and Royal Mail to deliver millions of products across the UK and Ireland every year.
The Very Group’s head of outbound logistics, Chris Haighton, says as a ‘big parcel user’ the business has been pleased to see the steps we’ve taken to improve our parcels service.
Very uses our Tracked 24 and Tracked 48 products and Special Delivery for more valuable items. ‘We’re really enjoying some of the new parcel facilities and the focus that’s been moved towards them over the past few years,’ said Chris. ‘Royal Mail has traditionally been quite a long way behind other parcel couriers. So, it’s great to see Royal Mail catching up, with things like Inflight and pictures of people’s safe place.’
One of our strengths is our ability to be flexible to customers’ needs, often at short notice, and this really helped at the height of Covid-19.
‘Where we’ve had products from suppliers that have doubled or even quadrupled, Royal Mail has been able to react very quickly to keep parcels flowing,’ added Chris.
‘We were in the process of launching a new fulfilment centre when lockdown started. Royal Mail really helped by giving us some fantastic late collection times. That helped us drive the volume out of the new warehouse and really build it up to the point where it is now, operating at full speed.’
Looking to the future, Very is keen to bring in more automation and self-serving capability – such as allowing customers to change delivery preferences online. Chris says our Inflight service and Royal Mail app is helping with this, but more can be done.
‘Customer expectations are advancing every year, every month, every week,’ he said. ‘Customers increasingly expect to change their mind, to be able to go online and have the option to change things right up to the last minute.
‘We want to be up there at the forefront, giving customers all the choices, all the great service and visibility they expect, and Royal Mail can really help us by delivering all of those things to customers.’
Director of parcel sales, Jon Nicholson, said: ‘Customer choice and transparency has to be the priority to enable us to offer a competitive and efficient service that meets the needs of businesses and consumers alike.
‘Anything that puts the customer at the heart of the journey of a parcel is a positive. We need to work hard and fast to continue to be a market leader.’
