Royal Mail to collect parcels from 5,000 corner shops

ROYAL MAIL customers will be able to drop off and pick up parcels from thousands of corner shops as the postal company fights back against rivals such as Amazon.

The business has agreed a deal that will allow customers to drop off parcels at 5,000 Collect+ locations across the UK in shops including Londis and independent newsagents.

Bosses said the multi-year deal with Paypoint, which will be rolled out from March, will make it easier to send and receive parcels by offering access at evenings and weekends.

The scheme will initially be limited to drop-offs, either for returns or items where customers have paid for postage online. Labels can be printed at home or customers can bring a QR code to the store. This will expand to pick-ups in future, allowing customers to collect online purchases.

It marks efforts by Royal Mail to improve its parcel offering amid growing demand driven by ecommerce. Online orders now make up around half its total sales to non-account customers.

But the company is lagging behind the well-established parcel delivery networks of rivals such as Amazon, Evri and Yodel. The deal with Paypoint builds on Royal Mail’s existing relationship with the Post Office, which allows customers to pick up and drop off parcels at branches and post boxes across the country.

The company is understood to be exploring other options to make parcel services more convenient, including the use of lockers.

Martin Seidenberg, the chief executive of parent company International Distributions Services, said: “This partnership is an important part of Royal Mail’s strategy to make our services even more convenient for customers and to give them the widest possible choice of where and when they can send parcels.”

Royal Mail’s focus on parcels comes as it also grapples with a slump in letter sending.

The postal company is lobbying for reform of the so-called universal service obligation, which requires it to deliver letters Monday to Saturday and sets delivery targets for first and second-class post.

Regulator Ofcom has set out proposals that could see the current delivery system replaced with a five or even three-day service.

However, any changes must ultimately be approved by the Government and Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, has ruled out the possibility of scrapping six-day deliveries.