Royal Mail and PayPoint are partnering to offer limited Royal Mail services at selected Collect+ locations.
Initially the services will be for click-and-drop acceptance items and home shopping returns only. The services are expected to start rolling out during March and Royal Mail expects to be live in around 5,000 Collect+ sites by the summer.
In the future, Royal Mail may introduce collection services through Collect+, but it currently has no plans to start ‘Buy in Branch’ services.
Nick Wiles, Chief Executive of PayPoint, said: “We are delighted that Collect+ will be playing a key role in our partnership with Royal Mail. As consumer channel shift continues to move towards Out of Home [OOH], our fantastic retailer partners will now have an even greater opportunity to serve the needs of their customers in communities across the UK through our leading OOH network.”
“We remain fully committed to investing further in the in-store consumer experience, through technology and operational support for our retailer partners, as well as continuing to grow our Collect+ network to service the strong growth in this area.”
In response, Neill O’Sullivan, Post Office Managing Director, Parcels and Mails, told postmasters: “I know you will have questions about what this new partnership means for you and your branches. My team and I will be looking at this in detail and will share more information soon.
“The value of our network and knowledge and experience of you, our postmasters, means we are the first choice of network partner for many other carriers.”
O’Sullivan added that the Post Office has some launches coming up, including being able to sell Tracked 24/48 in branch in early April, the launch of digital capture for customs information in early March, and working closely with Parcelforce to improve their collection services.
