PARCELLY SPOTLIGHT ON OUR MINI-WAREHOUSING SOLUTION

Published by Parcelly Team
 • 25 April 2018

We had a chat with our fabulous business partner ‘Root’ in London Paddington, who was not only featured as our Location of the Month last November, but was also one of the first Parcelly locations to offer our new Mini-warehousing service in London!

This new service makes 'home delivery in under 60 minutes option' available to any Online retailer, comparable to Amazon's "Prime" delivery option. Using hyper-local mini-warehouses, retailers can store items at Parcelly locations and have them delivered to customers in under an hour, regardless of where their main distribution centre or warehouse is located. After an order has been placed by a customer, the purchased item is collected by the retailer's chosen on-demand courier from a hyper-local Parcelly location and delivered to the customer's address by bike, scooter or car. Parcelly’s innovative Mini-warehousing has not only the benefit of providing operational efficiency, but also improves the environmental impact of parcel deliveries and traffic congestion, particularly in urban areas.

We wanted to know what the experience has been for one of our mini-warehousing Parcelly locations, how easy it blended in with their daily business and if they would recommend the service to other business owners…

 

What was your first thought when Parcelly introduced you to the new mini-warehousing solution?
To be honest, in the beginning I thought it would be quite complicated; it sounded like a lot to handle. But in the end it turned out to be super simple and not difficult to manage at all!

Did you have any particular concerns, i.e. about the required storage capacity or possible interruption to your main business?
I thought my storage space was a bit isolated in the back and feared the pallets would be in the way of my main business. But it wasn't the case and the whole service went really smooth.

How easy was it to set up the mini-warehousing in your store?
Very easy, I did not have to do anything, really! The Parcelly team came down to the store just before the drop off and put everything in place in my store. They also told me in advance when the drop off was going to happen so I was prepared and expecting the pallets already.

Could you describe the parcel pick up process? Did it get in the way of your shop's main business in any way?
It was super smooth. Someone from Parcelly would call me the day before to let me know which parcels were going to be picked up by giving me the respective Parcelly ID, and what time the delivery driver was going to come to my store.
So I would keep them on the side the day before to be super quick when the driver would come to collect them. The driver had the ID's of the parcels he was going to pick up, and as they were already out on the side, I just had to check them out via the Parcelly app like any other parcel that gets collected. And no, it did not interfere with my normal business at all and never took more than a couple of minutes for even a multi-delivery pick up.

Considering there was a large amount of parcels in your store at the same time, how did the check in/out process go? Did this work well alongside the normal Parcelly click&collect service you offer?
The big drop off of the pallets were done by the Parcelly team and I did not have to do anything actually. I would just prepare the pick-up and put the parcels on the side the day before. It worked just fine alongside the standard Parcelly click&collect service. These parcels are usually picked up within 1-3 days by the customer and I also did not store these together with the mini warehousing parcels; so there was no way to mix them up...

How was the customer support provided by the Parcelly team?
Yeah, it was really really good. They would always pick up straight away, if I had a problem and they would always come to the store to help me out with the check in/out process if needed when a larger number of parcels were being picked up at the same time.

Would you recommend this service to other shop owners? If so, what are the benefits you see for your business?
Yes, absolutely! Firstly, it generates a very good commission and the service is really simple to operate. You would think you need a very large space in order to offer this type of service, but that is not really the case. Any free space a business owner has in store is a good opportunity for making some extra money. If you have free space that you don't need, why not store some parcels? I can't wait to offer Parcelly the extra space I have once again.

What is your opinion about the mini-warehousing service being the next big thing in cities like London? Is there anything you would change/improve?
Yeah, I think it is a great idea, as it is very convenient for retail companies to access storage capacity in a location in central London. The only thing I would improve is introducing a bar code, just in order to make it easier, would save more time. 

Root Parcelly mini warehousing Apr 2018 smallParcelly mini-warehousing project with Aesop, example Root London storage facility November 2017

Parcelly's mini-warehousing solution can provide a large number of retailers with central storage capacity in cities across the UK, facilitating their supply chain and allowing on-demand delivery of sale items. We look forward to working with more Online retailers who are keen to innovate their last-mile and ensure maximum convenience for their customers. If your business is interested in partnering with Parcelly please get in touch HERE. #parcellove

 




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