Spring joint venture to be ‘new standard’ for UK e-commerce deliveries

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The UK division of mail and parcels solutions provider, Spring, has launched a joint venture which it believes will become the new standard in deliveries for online retailers.

Spring UK has claimed that the SendMyParcel.com system amounts to the ultimate solution to the issues of cost and complication often associated with offering consumers a greater range of delivery options.

The firm’s Head of Channel, Craig Lee, described that whilst the system – which has been established by Spring UK’s parent company, Post NL, and Dutch firm MyParcel.com – is suitable for e-tailers of all sizes, it promises smaller operators a greater opportunity to compete against much larger brands both at home and abroad.

“So many online retailers with which we speak, including those in webshops and marketplaces, want to be able to offer consumers a broad range of delivery services. However, they find that they are prevented from tapping into the kind of facilities which would enable them to grow because their volumes aren’t large enough.

“However, SendMyParcel allows them access to the sort of delivery options which are normally only provided by much larger competitors, such as nominated day or ‘click and collect’, at very competitive price points.

“Furthermore, it’s so straightforward that some firms will even be able to start shipping to customers within hours of signing up.”

Mr Lee indicated that launching SendMyParcel in the UK meant being able to build its cross-border volumes in Europe’s largest e-commerce market ahead of expanding into other major territories.

One recent study suggested that UK consumers had spent £13.9 billion online during the course of 2017 – an increase of 13.65 per cent on the year before.

Lars Vlietman, one of the owners of MyParcel.com, outlined how, instead of onerous integration and subscription fees, SendMyParcel would be free to retailers shipping up to 1,200 packages a year. Those dispatching larger volumes would, he said, be charged on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis.

Mr Vlietman added that rather than creating an infrastructure onto which retailers had to bolt their own preferred delivery providers, SendMyParcel was a cloud-based ‘plug and play’ system enabling e-commerce firms to select preferred carriers from a library of pre-loaded partners.

“We recognise that delivery problems are not confined to the SME-tail community. Bigger retailers are often charged many thousands of pounds and forced to wait months for access to new carrier services platforms.

“That’s partly because they’re designed in such a complex and prescriptive fashion. What we’re now able to give them, though, is a platform which overcomes those barriers. It’s a much more simple, quick, flexible and less expensive means of achieving their objectives than anything else currently available.

Mr Lee highlighted how the SendMyParcel platform also boasts a number of the leading e-commerce plug-ins and connectors, such as Magento, Amazon, eBay, WooCommerce and Prestashop, with many more being added as part of an overall move to focus on channel and platforms.

“In that sense, it’s in keeping with our consultative approach to doing business with clients.

“Even though we will of course be offering Spring’s own delivery services, SendMyParcel is not restricting retailers by only giving subscribers access to whatever it is we do.

“It’s more about the vast collective knowledge which we have and coming up with a solution which is best for our clients.

“I think that’s a recipe for growth for ourselves as well as the many large and small retail brands with which we work.”

The launch of My Parcel comes shortly after Mr Ferguson announced that Spring UK had been "re-energised" by a string of senior appointments which, he said, underlined the importance of the UK to the global operations of Spring Global Delivery Solutions.