Parcel lockers are a self-delivery system that’s based on technology, and they’ve been introduced as a solution to those last-mile woes often felt by retailers, both online and off. Once they created waves across North America and Europe, these automated parcel terminals are now even making inroads in India. To put it simply, the lockers assist businesses with a quite cost-effective and efficient way to deliver products to their customers.
Critical Features
There are a few critical features of these lockers that you need to know about. They include things like:
- Collection Point – Terminals of parcel lockers – some of them containing waterproof outdoor lockers – are placed in convenient locations such as community centers, shopping malls, apartment buildings, and metro stations. Customers can collect their packages from these easily within a few days of the retailers shipping them.
- Accurate Shipping Costs – using parcel lockers to ship gives retailers an accurate estimate of the delivery and shipping cost. This is due to unpredictable circumstances such as address issues or re-attempts at delivery being eliminated. This actually assists when it comes to bringing down that last mile cost of delivery.
- Shipment Tracking – Retailers are able to track their shipments in real-time utilizing a tracking number. Additionally, customers can also receive information that’s up to date regarding the shipment tracking of their order.
- Security – These lockers are both virtually and physically secure. They’re constructed of materials that are high quality and secured from both identity theft and vandalism.
- Simple Return – Just as it is with the delivery, parcel lockers also make the return simple. All a customer has to do is place the product back in the original packaging and return it to the locker.
Inventory Management
Lockers for parcels improve the entire scope of inventory management while also improving omnichannel fulfillment. They streamline both virtual and in-store inventory, giving retailers a better understanding of their inventory and ensuring delivery of the products when they’re available.
Shipping Speed
In previous times, shipping used to be managed by a network of distribution centers. Since the introduction of the parcel lockers, it was extended to all of the stores in territories that were farther out. The technology of the lockers that are located in more rural areas make items that were ordered more easily accessible to the customers. Because of the reduction in logistics challenges, now retailers can ship their products with a shorter time for turnaround. Due to this, they can exceed the expectations of their customers with a value-based service.
Compliance
Traditionally, carriers had to deal with a variety of compliance issues that included regulatory practices and adhering to regulatory standards. They also had to arrange specialized logistic services in order to transport products that were sensitive and to adhere to regulations regarding social, vendor, and storage compliance. Utilizing parcel lockers can assist with fulfilling each of these compliance issues just by reducing the amount of logistical complexity.
Final Thoughts
Each of these benefits combined with customer convenience and cost-effectiveness are giving retailers much more control over all of their omnichannel operations. This is done through ease of returns, switching over to alternate locations for deliveries, and scheduling of deliveries. Because of this, more and more eCommerce vendors are switching to the integration of parcel lockers and omnichannel. Even more are beginning to truly take this change seriously, and this is just the onset of this technology. Where will it go from here?
If your business hasn’t tried this emerging technology, you’re missing out. The sooner you make the switch, the sooner you can reap all of the benefits it offers.
