The Very Group has extended its next-day delivery cut-off time for customer orders through automated technology at its Skygate fulfilment centre in the East Midlands.
The new cut-off time, from 7pm to 10pm has been introduced before the ‘Golden Quarter’ of the year, which comprises of Black Friday and the Christmas season.
Skygate’s automated sortation, selection, advanced picking and single- or multi-order packaging technology allows for orders to be dispatched within 30 minutes, compared to around four hours at the company’s previous fulfilment centres. The Skygate fulfilment centre handles 95% of the company’s orders, and stocks six million items.
The company has said that the site is helping to take one million miles off the road, reducing packaging, and improving its power usage.
The 850,000ft2 site launched the day the first national lockdown began in March 2020 and shipped 20 million items during its first year in operation.
“Fast delivery is vital for a great customer experience, and that’s what we focused on when developing Skygate’s technology,” commented Phil Hackney, Chief Operating Officer at Very.
