Competitor Watch

Parcel delivery company, Hermes is partnering with application programming interface (API) vendor PostTag to improve the accuracy of its final mile deliveries.

PostTag’s technology checks, verifies, and locates an exact delivery address at the point of order and does not require any additional inputs from the customer or delivery driver. Hermes said the new technology will help increase its efficiency and improve customer satisfaction at a time when it is seeing significantly increased demand for home deliveries.

Hermes UK also announced that it has leased a new 75,402 sq ft warehouse at Panattoni Park next to the M1 motorway near Nottingham as it expands its capacity to meet its ambitious growth plans.

Both initiatives are part of Hermes’ £100m investment commitment in the UK this year, backed by its new owner Advent International.

According to the latest IMRG Capgemini Online Retail Index, which tracks the online sales performance of over 200 retailers, customers stepped up their online shopping at the end of October ahead of the latest lockdown restrictions in the UK and the forthcoming peak season.

The latest monthly figures from IMRG and Capgemini show that after months of growth in excess of 40 per cent, online retail sales growth eased to below 30 per cent in the first few weeks of October, but then rose again to more than 40 per cent growth in the final week of the month.

‘November’s volumes are going to provide a really stern test for delivery,’ said IMRG. ‘Not only was there a big jump in sales activity in the last week of October – suggesting people had started Christmas shopping earlier than normal – but we could see a huge share of sales brought forward from December too.’

We have launched our ‘Shop Early, Send Early for Christmas’ social media campaign together with the Post Office and eBay to help manage the huge spike in customers doing the majority, if not all, of their Christmas shopping online.

The campaign encourages customers to get ahead of the traditional Christmas rush – both by shopping online early, and by sending parcels and letters to family and friends early.

Christmas is our busiest time of the year for parcel deliveries, but this Christmas is expected to be our biggest yet, easily outstripping prior years' festive peaks.