Parcels

[kobblers]

I'm looking to expand my services and am thinking of being one of those places where you can drop or collect a parcel.

Has anyone got experience of this and can you offer any advice on how to get going and any potential pitfalls?

Cheers. Rick.

[grahamparker]

Have to be open early and late mate, that's why i did not bother.

[Count Muppet]

Some of our shops have this.

it’s not popular with the colleagues.

can need a lot of space to store them and they don’t see much money on them compared to the time they spend dealing with them.

then there’s the problem that if someone needs something urgently but you’ve had to close for a while for whatever reason. I’d imagine you’d have to deal with an angry customer and an angry courier company.

[rmarsters]

Have been doing DPD for a couple of years, I'd say 9/10 times it's simple as just scanning a parcel or scanning a phone.   Gets us a lot of people walking through the door that wouldn't normally come in

[Paul_]

1 hour ago, rmarsters said:

Have been doing DPD for a couple of years, I'd say 9/10 times it's simple as just scanning a parcel or scanning a phone.   Gets us a lot of people walking through the door that wouldn't normally come in

and the other 1-10?? 

[rmarsters]

The other 1/10 is the person who has a message on their phone that says 'open this for your pick up pass' but denies all knowledge or that has a message saying your parcel will be delivered tomorrow and can't understand why it isn't here.

In a few years we've only really had one or two nightmares, people calling at 11pm asking why they can't pick up a parcel, or someone turning up with 20 massive boxes and filling the shop

[kobblers]

20 hours ago, rmarsters said:

The other 1/10 is the person who has a message on their phone that says 'open this for your pick up pass' but denies all knowledge or that has a message saying your parcel will be delivered tomorrow and can't understand why it isn't here.

In a few years we've only really had one or two nightmares, people calling at 11pm asking why they can't pick up a parcel, or someone turning up with 20 massive boxes and filling the shop

What are your shop opening times?

Cheers. Rick.

[rmarsters]

2 hours ago, kobblers said:

What are your shop opening times?

Cheers. Rick.

8.30 - 5 Mon - Fri and 9-2 on Saturday.

DPD were ok with this, and when a customer chooses to have a parcel delivered to us it tells them this. 

[CotswoldEngraver]

On 4/15/2021 at 12:42 PM, rmarsters said:

The other 1/10 is the person who has a message on their phone that says 'open this for your pick up pass' but denies all knowledge or that has a message saying your parcel will be delivered tomorrow and can't understand why it isn't here.

In a few years we've only really had one or two nightmares, people calling at 11pm asking why they can't pick up a parcel, or someone turning up with 20 massive boxes and filling the shop

We do DPD too. Been doing it for 4 years now. Really good service, brings more people in than we expected. You can set the amount of parcels you are prepared to hold in store and set your opening hours, if you are closed for any reason you just mark the dates closed for holiday etc and it blocks any deliveries or collections. We've got a good driver who texts every morning to let us know when he's calling and we've created a whatsapp group for regular customers so everyone knows when the collection is going to be.

As said above, the most hassle comes from those that either haven't read their notice properly or bring in parcels from other couriers and then try to tell us we are wrong because google told them we do UPS/DHL/Hermes 'so why can't I leave my parcel??'

 

[Count Muppet]

Everyone’s favourite customer, the one who tells you that you’re wrong and you must do it because someone that has no connection at all to your business told them you can do it.

[Mike at Vauxhall]

6 minutes ago, Count Muppet said:

 the one who tells you that you’re wrong and you must do it 

Get enough of that sh*t at home.

[GLENGRAVING]

I've considered it recenrly, could be a great idea

(especially if I'm thinking of expanding into more online selling anyway, so good relations with courier would help?)

But I don't think it's for me, for now - don't need the added stress of being responsible for other people's packages and systems.

Maybe after I've done the shop renovation/reorganisation I have in mind (and once I've trained a capable new colleague). Good to hear that it's getting new people through some of your doors tho, and that you can put a limit on the parcels. 

Edited April 17, 2021 by GLENGRAVING

[Count Muppet]

What sort of money is in it?

I suppose the people through the door is valuable enough, but how much do you get per parcel?

[CotswoldEngraver]

23 hours ago, Count Muppet said:

What sort of money is in it?

I suppose the people through the door is valuable enough, but how much do you get per parcel?

It's not life changing by any means, we get £0.60 per parcel. As I say not a lot income wise but then engage them in a conversation and give each one a business card and the number of customer's I've had come back who have subsequently given us orders far outweighs the income from taking their parcel in!

[rmarsters]

5 hours ago, CotswoldEngraver said:

It's not life changing by any means, we get £0.60 per parcel. As I say not a lot income wise but then engage them in a conversation and give each one a business card and the number of customer's I've had come back who have subsequently given us orders far outweighs the income from taking their parcel in!

Would agree with this, the parcel shop itself brings in around £25-£40 a week but we easily do that again cutting keys whilst they're in the shop and that's before they've seen all the other services we do

[CotswoldEngraver]

On 4/19/2021 at 3:01 PM, rmarsters said:

Would agree with this, the parcel shop itself brings in around £25-£40 a week but we easily do that again cutting keys whilst they're in the shop and that's before they've seen all the other services we do

Yes, that's about what we do per week.