Quadient, a leader in helping businesses create meaningful customer connections through digital and physical channels and a major global parcel locker operator, introduced today an additional feature for its Parcel Pending by Quadient smart lockers that enables shoppers to easily drop off parcels, with the added ability to print shipping labels if needed.
On average, researchers estimate 20% to 24% of online purchases are returned to retailers. Additionally, the evolution of the circular economy is highly impacting the e-commerce landscape, contributing to the surge in customer-to-customer (C2C) parcel volumes and delivery services. These trends are leading carriers to look for ways to scale their first-mile activity and innovate to reduce the associated rising costs. Thanks to Quadient’s modular design, the Drop Box and Printer comes as a unit that can be added to new or existing locker configurations. This module enables consumers to place packages directly into the Drop Box by simply scanning a barcode label, maximising parcel volume while minimising the locker footprint. Users also have the ability to print standard shipping labels directly from the built-in printer. Quadient’s cloud-based monitoring technology captures every step of the process and gives carriers full visibility of the parcels’ status at any time.
As the new solution becomes available in the UK, one of the country’s largest parcel delivery companies, Evri, will be the first carrier to offer the Drop Box and Printer capability to its customers. Evri is one of four international carriers that have joined the Quadient smart locker open network in the UK. The open locker network already accounts for about 300 locker stations in operation, with plans to reach 5,000 units in the coming years at the pace of about 200 new locations per month.
“The introduction of our fully integrated Drop Box with optional Printer in our carrier-agnostic network makes us unique to the market,” said Ian Caminsky, SVP & MD Parcel Locker Solutions DACHIT-UKI, Quadient. “Quadient is leveraging its long-standing experience in Japan, France, the US and the UK to bring to market innovations that focus on creating operational efficiencies and eliminating time consuming processes. We are honoured to have Evri as our first integrated carrier to use this new feature to easily manage their first mile flows and deliver exceptional customer experiences to online shoppers.”
“We’re delighted to expand our out of home network with Quadient’s smart locker network, taking advantage of new locker technology. It will increase the convenience of sending by allowing customers to print a label directly from the locker 24/7, which is great for customers who can’t print at home and means that Quadient’s locker network offers the same services as our ParcelShops. The Drop Box functionality provides a quick and simple way for small businesses to send multiple parcels in one go and maximises the number of parcels that can be handled at a single locker location each day,” said Kath Gill, Head of Out of Home at Evri.
On-screen user satisfaction surveys conducted by Quadient in December 2022 and January 2023 collecting over 60,000 responses in France and Japan showed more than 97% of respondents are satisfied with their parcel locker experience. In addition, 97% of first mile users in Japan are satisfied with their experience, highlighting convenience of the location, a contactless experience and wide hours of availability as the main reasons for satisfaction.
In the coming months, Quadient will make the Drop Box and Printer available to retailers and other carriers across Europe and in North America.
The new Drop Box and Printer is being presented by Quadient and Evri today in London at the UK e-commerce industry’s main event, The Delivery Conference. Visit Quadient at Stand No. 11 to learn more.