CollectPlus sees 39% rise in parcel transactions
CollectPlus has announced that its parcel transactions increased by 39% to 18.8 million in the year ending 31 March 2015. A joint venture between multi-channel payments company PayPoint and parcel delivery company Yodel, CollectPlus enables mail order and online retailers to offer their customers the option of having their goods delivered to or returned through a participating PayPoint retailer, and also allows customers to send their goods through a participating PayPoint retailer.
The business saw particularly strong growth in its Click & Collect channel, where volumes were up 91% on the previous year.
CollectPlus’ store network grew to over 5,800 sites during the 2014/15 reporting period. Its commercial service performance was enhanced by business wins contributing to a 17% growth in its client base, now made up of more than 300 participating retail brands including John Lewis, Boohoo, New Look, Very, Marks and Spencer, ASOS, Virgin Media and House of Fraser. Furthermore, said the company. a number of new clients are currently ‘in build’ for launch during the coming spring/summer period.
Commenting on the results, Neil Ashworth, CEO of CollectPlus, said: “Last year CollectPlus reported its first full year of profit since the business was founded in 2009 and I’m delighted to that we have achieved a second profitable year. Our parcel volume growth has been extremely strong and this is reflective of our customers continuing to choose CollectPlus as their online shopping delivery and returns partner in ever greater numbers.
“We are particularly pleased with the growth of our Click & Collect service; enthusiasm for the delivery option amongst online shoppers continues to go from strength to strength and our customers now increasingly look for CollectPlus at the point of checkout when shopping online.
“As the market has matured, so too have the needs of our customers and our growth over the last twelve months has been underpinned by our ability to understand and anticipate those needs. We have focused on refining and widening the breadth of our store network so that people can access CollectPlus services in the places that they live, shop and work. We have added shopping centres, universities and further high street locations to our network and I’m pleased to say that we remain the largest, independent store-based parcel delivery and returns service in the UK.
“Over the next 12 months our focus is to continue to grow our store network in locations that are most convenient to our customers, develop new and innovative retail partnerships and ensure that we stand out from the crowd in an increasingly competitive market by putting our customers and their needs at the heart of our service offer.”
While the core of the CollectPlus retail network remains based upon convenience stores, petrol forecourts and newsagents, the business has also developed strategic partnerships with companies such as Capital & Regional and Land Securities in order to make its services available at ten shopping centres across the UK. Customers can now collect and return items purchased online while shopping in physical stores.
CollectPlus said that it has also taken “significant steps” to make its Click & Collect service more accessible to retailers. It partnered with leading web platform Visualsoft to develop web technology that has made it easier for many retailers in the UK to integrate the CollectPlus Click & Collect service into their websites.
This was followed by a further partnership with ParcelPoint, with whom CollectPlus has developed a web-based widget to make it simpler for retailers to integrate the service into their websites.
Paypoint, which also announced its results today (28 May), reported that its net revenue for the year ended 31 March 2015 was £218.5m, up 3% from the previous year, and its profit before tax increased by 7.7% to £49.6m.
