Supermarket chain Asda is introducing a new parcel innovation program ToYou, which will enable customers to collect and return the orders placed with third party sources at any of the Asda stores across the UK.
The first partner to register for the service is online fashion retailer Missguided.
ToYou is powered by parent firm Walmart, which is seeking to tap 1.5 billion parcels that are delivered across the UK each year. Asda is looking to benefit from the physical access needs of online retailers at locations across the UK.
Asda predicts that if the service works then it could provide the company with up to 40 million additional visits annually by 2019.
Asda logistics services and supply chain vice president Ian Stansfield said: "Demand for online shopping is ever increasing, with it grows the appetite from online retailers to have physical footprints their customers can access. Not only are we providing online retailers with a presence on the high street we're also bridging a gap for customers who want to collect or return their online orders while carrying out their weekly shop."
This is an industry first: complete, real time, individual parcel tracking - whether collect or return, every step of a parcels journey is tracked and visible to our clients and customers. This truly is game changing."
Parcel collection accounts for more than 10% of Asda's online orders across the country. As more parcels enter the delivery networks, there is natural demand for customers looking for flexible options with online shopping. This in turn results in retailers seeking easier delivery options to get their packages to the customers.
With ToYou, Asda aims to provide a parcel solution where customers can have live tracking of the data in real time. The constant tracking enables better accuracy in delivery and return of the parcels.
With the launch of this new parcel system, online retailers can expand their physical footprint giving customers to shop more conveniently and more reason to shop at Asda stores. ToYou will have a dedicated team which will be based at the supermarket's parcel tracking control hub in Rochdale.
Apart from the third party services, the new solution has facilitated Asda to improve its George.com offer as well. The supermarket chain initiated a renewed 'non-food' Click and Collect solution for George.com, which has reduced the customer wait time for collection by more than 60%, the company claims.
This means that customers will be able to place orders up to 9pm for collection next day. The new system has passed over one million parcels already, the company states.
George e-commerce senior director Stephen Langford said: "George serves more customers online than most fashion retailers so for us this move was a bit of a no brainer, a slicker service, with more in depth data, which allows us to know what the optimum times of day we need to have colleagues ready to serve our customers.
"We can now see that customers ordering for the following day are collecting parcels between 5-7pm but if they miss their day one delivery slot, they're coming to collect parcels between 8-10am the following day - this insight has helped us reduce waiting times by over 60%. This is data not only helping improve george.com but we're also able to provide it to our clients."
With the new parcel system, George.com's operations have been streamlined as customers can track parcels, place orders up to 9pm for next day collection, meaning that even during peak times they would be able to get a better shopping experience, the company states.
