20,000 Shop Direct Group customers using Collect+ every week

20,000 Shop Direct Group customers use Collect+ every week, just a year after the innovative logistics company’s services were first offered. Collect+, which allows online and mail order customers to pick up purchases or drop off returns at participating local shops, within the Paypoint network, now handles parcels for Shop Direct Group brands including Woolworths.co.uk, Littlewoods and Kays. Building on this momentum, Very.co.uk is running a joint marketing exercise with Collect+ promoting its convenient returns service.

Driven by consumer choice, Collect+ is taking an increasing share of overall Shop Direct Group’s deliveries and returns from more traditional logistics companies, such as Royal Mail.

Research¹ has shown that the positive experience customers have had of the Collect+ service is driving loyalty to Shop Direct Group’s brands. That over half of the Shop Direct customers using Collect+ take advantage of the service’s non-traditional opening hours is indicative of the wider demand from those that shop online for a delivery and returns service that fits with busy lives.

Keith Basnett, Chief Operating Officer at Shop Direct Group, says of the flourishing relationship with Collect+:

“For Shop Direct Group, offering customers the right service is essential to ensuring they come back to our brands again and again. A very big part of this is handling the often tricky question of returns.  We invite our customers to use their home as their changing rooms and, if they wish to return an item, we do not want any of them to have to face lengthy queues to return something. Providing customers with the choice of Collect+, where they can drop off parcels at a time suitable for them, is a great way to ensure that Shop Direct Group’s brands are providing a seamless service. That so many of our customers are choosing the service is a testament to how easy and convenient Collect+
is to use.”

Mark Lewis, Chief Executive of Collect+, says:

“We’re delighted to be able to offer consumers greater choice and convenience through such strong brands. Collect+ has a great service to offer retailers and their customers - 75% of people living in urban areas are less than a mile from their closest Collect+ store and with all of them open beyond traditional hours, and 99% open on Sunday as well, it is one as convenient as it is local. That convenience is the reason why so many customers of Shop Direct Group’s brands trust Collect+ with their purchases.”

Founded in February 2009 as a joint venture between Yodel, formerly Home Delivery Network, and PayPoint, Collect+ operates through a network of 3,500 specially selected PayPoint Stores.

¹ SDG Customer Analysis, September 2010

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Notes to editors

For more information or to set up a personal briefing with Mark Lewis, please contact the Collect+ PR team at the Red Consultancy:
0207 025 6500 / collectplusteam@redconsultancy.com   

About Collect+

Collect+ is a new delivery and returns service giving online shoppers greater freedom and flexibility with the choice of collecting and dropping off parcels at local convenience stores.

With 98% of Collect+ outlets open seven days a week, normally early in the morning until late at night, the service offers online shoppers the option to pick up or drop off purchases at a time and place convenient to them.

75% of the UK population lives within a mile of a Collect+ store in urban areas, and five miles in rural areas.

Collect+ services are securely delivered by Home Delivery Network, which has 90 years delivery experience, carrying 300,000 items a day, and the retail payment network PayPoint, which handles over a million financial transactions each day through simple, staff operated terminals located in a network of 22,000 shops.

This backing gives Collect+ a mass of experience in logistics, fulfilment and retail as well as making the company entirely scalable in line with client need or in response to seasonal peaks.