The Swedish home improvement chain Jula is currently conducting a pilot test in four of its department stores with StrongPoint’s parcel lockers. Offering deliveries in parcel lockers at Click & Collect has streamlined the delivery process and offered time savings for both customers and stores.
Jula is a Swedish department store chain where do-it-yourselfers and craftsmen can find a wide range of products for the home, garden and leisure. In Sweden, the chain has a large coverage and 69% of Swedes visit a Jula department store at least once a year. Jula currently has 120 department stores, of which 63 are in Sweden, 38 in Norway, 19 in Poland, and they’re currently setting up shop in Finland. In Skara, the chain’s headquarters and central warehouse serve both department stores and e-commerce. Department stores are an important hub in the company’s e-commerce, and the strategy of offering free shipping to the store means that many customers choose to pick up their order in store.
To facilitate in-store e-commerce deliveries, Jula has been testing parcel lockers from StrongPoint at the Borås, Lund, Partille and Skövde department stores since August 2022. We have interviewed Margareta Boström, Business Developer and Insight Manager at Jula. She runs projects to investigate and evaluate new solutions that develop Jula’s business, such as testing parcel lockers as a delivery option.
‘We are always thinking about how we can make things more efficient. So this was a streamlining idea and we felt that customers were ripe for it. No one starts scratching their head when they get to a parcel locker. It’s so commonplace these days that customers know what to do.’ says Margareta Boström.
It was at that point that Jula contacted StrongPoint. ‘We were looking for a solution that was fully developed and found that StrongPoint had what we were looking for; long experience with parcel lockers and continuous work with the system, i.e. the software,’ says Margareta.
Jula’s e-commerce continues to grow, which also means a continued high level of e-commerce delivery via Click & Collect. In fact, as much as half of Jula’s e-commerce orders are picked up in store. Usually, customers go to a customer service desk and wait for their turn to be served and receive their parcel.
‘When you pick up manually at the customer service desk, there is a risk that you may have to wait a bit.’ So customers would rather pick up at the parcel lockers. We anticipate that there will be time savings for both customers and department store employees.’ says Margaret.
By allowing customers to go directly to a parcel locker where they can pick up their order themselves, we remove the customer’s waiting time and lower the staff’s handling time.Parcel lockers are aligned with our basic philosophy that customers should have the conditions to fend for themselves at Jula.’ explains Margaret.
Staff becomes more efficient when using parcel lockers. E-commerce orders can be picked up in store or arrive from the central warehouse. Based on the parcel dimensions, the department store employee decides whether to place it in a parcel locker or on a storage shelf next to the customer service desk. The advantage of parcel lockers is that the staff’s work ends the moment an order is placed in its locker.
“Our internal goal with this is for employees to hold a parcel once. We have not measured the time efficiency in department stores, but it’s obvious that you’re saving time if you only need to hold a product once.’ says Margareta
Another advantage is that it becomes less stressful for the staff. Customers who want to pick up their parcel require a human resource and it becomes an urgent task. As the bell rings at the customer service desk, the staff must interrupt their current task and help the customer. Parcel lockers eliminate that and reduce the staff’s stress burden.
Parcel lockers have been very well received by customers. When the parcel is placed in the locker, the customer receives a notification by SMS with instructions for retrieval. ‘Messages are SMS-based, which means that no matter how up to speed you are technology-wise, you should be able to handle an SMS,’ says Margareta.
Jula has already conducted a survey among its e-commerce customers to better understand how they value the delivery option. ‘We have measured customer satisfaction and it is sky high. 97% say that they either prefer to pick up their order in a parcel locker or that it doesn’t matter. Satisfaction with picking up in parcel lockers is close to 100%. Customers are simply delighted,’ says Margareta.
The test phase for the parcel lockers at Jula is still ongoing, which is mainly due to changed internal processes to adapt both routines and logistics to delivery in parcel lockers. But there’s no debate that parcel lockers are here to stay and that will be needed in the future. ‘Everyone needs to think about the efficiency of their store operations, and parcel lockers are definitely something to consider,’ concludes Margareta Boström.
Med paketskåp får såväl kunder som butiken en enkel hantering av “click & collect”. Att automatisera utlämningen med paketskåp blir även det mest effektiva alternativet för upphämtning från butikens perspektiv.
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