Amazon is to expand its click and collect service, PickUp Location Programme, to 10,500 Post Office branches across the UK, taking its total number of PickUp points to more than 16,000.
Deliveries to Amazon’s various click and collect points – which include Pass My Parcel stores, Collect+ stores and Amazon Lockers – have more than tripled in the last 12 months. Delivery to post office branches will be free of charge for Amazon Prime members, and charged at first class delivery rates for non-Prime customers.
Christopher North, managing director of Amazon.co.uk, said: “Pickup Locations have become the delivery method of choice for many shoppers. Offering the collection of packages from Post Offices is another great way of providing our customers with the highest levels of convenience.”
This is the second expansion of Amazon PickUp in as many months, following an agreement between the online retailer and Smith News in October, which provided customers with more than 500 collection points at newsagents and convenience store via the Pass My Parcel Network.
Despite the agreement between the Post Office and Amazon, Royal Mail has warned that the development of a delivery network by Amazon will reduce the growth in the UK addressable parcels market to between one to two per cent for two years.
Royal Mail launched the Local Collect service for large customers about a year ago and extended it to SMEs in August of this year. The Local Collect service is made possible through an IT development by Royal Mail which enables Local Collect users to choose the most convenient Post Office for a parcel delivery.
The Post Office is undertaking a major modernisation programme, including introducing longer opening hours into thousands of its branches. Over 3,000 Post Office branches have been modernized, with branches open from early in the morning and into the evening and around 2,000 open on Sundays.
