Even those businesses that previously treated eCommerce as an ominous vision of the future have moved into the world of online sales out of necessity. The sudden increase in eCommerce orders poses a challenge not only to the sellers themselves and their order fulfillment process, but also to the carriers and courier companies that deliver products to end customers. Let's see how the most popular ones are coping in this difficult period.
In just two weeks of March 2020, the sales of food products increased by nearly 250%, health and beauty products by about 140%, and electronics by nearly 2/3. All these products need to be delivered to an end customer, which has several delivery options. Therefore, if you are running your online store you need to consider working with the best courier service companies.
InPost parcel machines
The coronavirus caused a boom for parcel machines, and InPost itself accelerated the introduction of weekend deliveries, which remain at regular price until the end of April 2020. For quite some time now, buyers have been increasingly willing to use parcel machine deliveries, which have taken the Polish market by storm. Contactless methods of collecting shipments have become even more popular, and weekend delivery is an additional argument for using this type of shipment.
If you, as a recipient, are afraid of contact with the parcel machine keyboard, you have the possibility of contactless parcel collection. Although such a possibility was available even before the epidemic, now the number of customers interested in it has definitely increased.
Courier shipments
Most of the leading courier companies have introduced delivery of shipments without the recipient's signature. What about the possibility of unauthorized receipt of the shipment? In the case of UPS, InPost and DPD you will not need the recipient's signature. InPost will provide a delivery code, which is enough to give it to the courier at the time of delivery. In UPS, despite the change in the process, the courier will still need to make contact with the customer. The recipient must confirm receipt of the package at the time of delivery and, if applicable, show a photo ID.
What about the Polish Post Office?
Many equate post offices with a relic of a bygone era, but they have also adapted to the current situation. Beginning with opening hours of post offices and ending with the closing of post offices in shopping malls.
- 6 hours - that's how long the facilities will be open on weekdays
The collection of courier packages (Pocztex) delivered by Poczta Polska will take place on similar principles as in the case of services provided by private companies. The method of ensuring safety is to present from a safe distance an identity document, e.g. identity card, passport or driver's license. An employee will write down the last 4 digits of the number of the presented document.
Smart Allegro Service
Also the biggest Polish marketplace, which is experiencing a storm of users, has decided to join the general trend and introduced further improvements related to the "Smart Allegro" delivery. Until the end of April the service will be available to all users for free. Will this solution contribute to the popularization of the native answer to Amazon Prime?
Your eCommerce - Magneto external integrations
Magento is an open-source eCommerce platform that, with its ability to deploy extensive functionality and external integrations, will thrive in ever-changing market conditions. During the coronavirus pandemic, eCommerce saw a huge jump in the number of orders - so the logistics of getting products to customers is crucial to building a positive experience. By choosing Magento, you have the ability to integrate with many external systems, including the biggest players among courier companies, such as InPost or UPS. At Advox, we deal with Magento implementations and will be happy to help you build an eCommerce site tailored to your needs. Write to us!
