John Lewis and Clipper Logistics are to create a Click & Collect joint venture company to offer a dedicated next-day delivery service to other UK high street stores.
Clipper will operate the service, while John Lewis will provide insight into the retail market. The department store chain will also be using the service – last year John Lewis chose Clipper to manage the fulfilment of its 40,000 weekly Click & Collect orders.
John Lewis chose Clipper to provide Click & Collect services in July last year, and this joint venture builds on that work.
The service will involve timed delivery store in a retailer-friendly format, integration with retailers’ customer service systems to provide customer and store updates, text messaging to retailers’ end customers, and delivery into store in roll cages with clear “parent and child” relationships between the cage and the parcel to facilitate rapid parcel selection.
Funding and profits will be split 50/50 between John Lewis and Clipper – £3.4 million will initially be put into the venture.
“Click & Collect continues to be our fastest-growing delivery channel, with deliveries to Waitrose making up the majority of those sales,” said John Lewis operations director Dino Rocos.
“This joint venture will provide a much more tailored service so that Click & Collect orders which reach Waitrose branches are handled in a more efficient way. It will enable us to continue to give an outstanding service to our customers, who love this easy and convenient delivery option.”
“This is a truly ground-breaking development which will revolutionise the provision of Click & Collect services to the High Street in Britain,” said Steve Parkin, executive chairman of Clipper. “We are delighted to have worked closely with our partners, John Lewis, to research and develop this unique service proposition which will address directly the challenges posed to retailers in this rapidly growing area of activity.
John Lewis recently signed a ten-year contract with the logistics company for its retail support services at its Northampton distribution centre.
