Lidl is offering one-hour delivery in the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Valencia through a partnership with the Lola Market shopping platform. The discount supermarket chain is expanding its collaboration with Lola Market from Madrid to the two cities. Customers access the Lola Market platform through its website or app, (more…)
Parcelforce has redesigned its mobile app to make it more user-friendly and navigable. The application will now offer new functionality including FAQs, links to Parcelforce social media channels and access to customer service teams. It also offers a new feature allowing customers to redirect parcels to a Post Office branch (more…)
Can peak season sales carry on growing indefinitely? Weighing on the usual predictions on ecommerce growth are concerns over the economy and an election campaign that could dominate headlines. Peak season, loosely defined here as the period between Black Friday and Christmas, has delivered growing sales to the retail sector (more…)
DHL has opened a new parcel sorting centre in Germany which will eventually be able to sort 50,000 shipments per hour. The site in Bochum in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany’s Ruhr region, covers an area of 40,000 square metres. The centre is currently able to fulfil 20,000 (more…)
DPD France has received authorisation for a new drone delivery route to ship parcels to customers in a remote village. The new line connects Footanil-Cornillon in the village of Mont-Saint-Martin in Isère, eastern France. The route allows delivery in five minutes. To support the route, DPD uses a delivery vehicle (more…)
The High Court has ruled that a strike ballot by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) was unlawful, potentially preventing the union from striking during the build-up to Christmas. Although the High Court has not yet published full details of its decision, it has ruled in favour of Royal Mail’s submission (more…)
Alibaba set up 75,000 stations across China to recycle packaging this week as it sold $38.4 billion (RMB268.4 billion) of goods during its annual Singles Day event, up 26% year-on-year. The Chinese ecommerce giant allowed customers to recycle unwanted packaging at 40,000 stations set up by subsidiary Cainaio and 35,000 (more…)
Royal Mail has launched a legal challenge against the Communication Workers Union (CWU)’s plans to strike, which the latter has decried as “cowardly and vicious”. The carrier said there had been “potential irregularities in the ballot, which would render it unlawful”. It said it had received evidence from at least (more…)
Zalando has ended its returns collection service for customers of its loyalty programme. The German fast fashion retailer shuttered the service for Zalando Plus customers on 8 November, saying it “did not always meet [its] requirements for a premium programme”. Zalando encouraged customers to use Zalando’s standard free returns option (more…)
DPD has acquired a parcel business which operates in Czechia and Slovakia, strengthening its last mile offering in the countries. The carrier has bought the Czech and Slovakian subsidiaries of Geis Parcel, owned by the Geis Group. These are profitable parcel delivery businesses, which DPD says are market leaders in (more…)
Returns software start-up ZigZag Global has won new investment from shipping giant Maersk. ZigZag provides software that allows retailers to manage returns, consolidation and resale of products. The solution fits into Maersk’s goal of becoming an end-to-end logistics provider and enabling more sustainable supply chains. ZigZag will use the funding (more…)
PostNord is introducing 2000 parcel collection lockers across Denmark over the next six months. The initial roll-out will begin this year in the Danish capital Copenhagen and the city of Aarhus, with further cities to follow in 2020. The company is working with locker technology company SwipBox on the roll-out (more…)
French online retailer Cdiscount is trialling a new reusable package which allows customers to track it through geolocation. Working with parcel carrier Chronopost, the retailer will test 400 of the connected packages in the Bordelaise region of France. Customers can track the package, including information from the sensors, using the (more…)
The electric-assisted delivery bike which DPD co-designed is being road-tested for the first time. DPD is testing 10 of the P1 electric-assisted bikes in Europe. This includes five in the UK and five in Ireland, Spain, Germany, Portugal and France. The vehicle combines the rider’s pedal power with a 250 (more…)
John Lewis & Partners is allowing another retailer to make use of the Waitrose click and collect network for the first time in a trial with Boden. Customers of the fashion retailer will be able to collect items from 30 Waitrose supermarkets. The available locations, which span the UK, will (more…)
Retailer Zalando has committed to zero carbon delivery and returns as part of its new wide-ranging sustainability plan. From today (30 October) the German fast fashion company will offset all emissions from these areas through carbon credit programmes. It will also make use of alternative vehicles, as it is doing (more…)
DPD has pledged to more than triple its UK electric vehicle (EV) fleet by the end of next year as it called on government to do more to support operators. The parcel carrier said it would now have 500 EVs on the road by the end of 2020, compared to (more…)
Department store retailer John Lewis & Partners is looking to become more sustainable through a range of new initiatives at its Oxford store, including green delivery slots. Using an idea piloted previously by Sainsbury’s, John Lewis will allow customers booking home deliveries in store to select an “eco-delivery slot” where (more…)
Games Workshop is building a new distribution centre in the East Midlands. The model manufacturer and retailer’s new 177,500 square foot facility will supplement its existing distribution operation in Nottingham. It is sited at SEGRO’s logistics hub, which became operational with first customer Kuehne & Nagel in April 2019. The (more…)
Royal Mail is seeking to prevent a peak period strike it tries to reopen talks with the Communication Workers Union (CWU), after concluding a new pay deal with Unite. The UK postal giant said it would re-enter discussions with the CWU if the union provided a binding commitment to not (more…)