An Post piloting “combined e-commerce and home delivery service” for local businesses
Ireland-based postal operator An Post is a piloting a new “combined e-commerce and home delivery service”, called eLocal.ie, which will connect local retailers with their customers “both online and in person”.
According to An Post: “The simple business proposition is that An Post will provide a next day delivery service for businesses and merchants to local customers. A key feature of the eLocal.ie service will involve An Post giving each retailer an online presence, displaying their goods and services, and enabling online orders.”
An Post began piloting the eLocal.ie service (which uses the strapline, “Shop Local, Deliver Local”) in Ennis, Bantry and Mullingar this week. The company will test the service, assess the business and then begin to roll out eLocal.ie nationwide.
eLocal.ie enables customers to –
- Shop online wherever they see the eLocal.ie logo.
- Click and order via the retailer’s eLocal.ie page.
- Have those purchases delivered locally within 24 hours/nationally within 48 hours, or
- Order online and collect in-store.
An Post gave an example of how the service would work: “The customer contacts participating business and orders a range of items to be delivered to their home a couple of miles outside the town. The items are gathered, boxed and picked up that afternoon by the local mail office and delivered to the customer by their regular postperson as part of the usual mail delivery on the following day. Customer pays a fee for the delivery or the retailer absorbs the fee in whole or in part. Charges for the service are €7.50 for delivery or €3.50 for ‘click and collect’ and these are the only costs or charges involved.”
Garrett Bridgeman, Managing Director of An Post’s Mails and Parcels division, commented: “eLocal helps local business fight back by giving them the capacity to trade online and access our national delivery network. The service will also generate new business for An Post’s own mails network.”
