Courier news -

Citysprint And Metapack In Partnership With Asos.Com To Deliver Ground Breaking Delivery Solution -

Online retail has continued to grow at an impressive pace and shows little sign of slowing. In fact online shopping is continuing to prove more resilient than the High Street and is expected to grow by 13.3 per cent to £20.9 billion in 2009.

As more and more retailers recognise these opportunities they are inevitably going to have to work much harder to keep pace with their rivals. Research released by Verdict in June 2009 said that ‘with the expansion in market capacity slowing, retailers are inevitably going to find themselves having to compete much harder against their rivals in order to achieve the same levels of growth that they have previously been accustomed to.”

True to form ASOS.COM grasped this opportunity and, via a partnership comprising CitySprint and MetaPack, has launched a same day delivery service to its customers.

Same day delivery to retail customers has, for a while, eluded the industry. Retailers recognised the benefit of being able to offer such a service. However, the way in which to offer this in a cost effective manner on a wider scale has, to date, proved impossible. A few retailers are offering it on a small or localised scale, but ASOS.COM is the first to offer such a service on a wider scale. One of the key elements to its success is CitySprint's infrastructure and tenacity. Speaking about Same day home delivery at the 2009 Mail and Express Delivery Show in June Derek Weaver, Head of Operations - MetaPack, said "If anyone is going to crack this service offering it will be the same day courier industry". The gauntlet was thrown down and CitySprint responded.

By utilising CitySprint’s unique infrastructure and MetaPack’s interface ASOS.COM is able to offer a same day service for deliveries within, and on the outskirts of the M25. In total a 50-mile radius of its Hemel Hempstead warehouse. CitySprint has a national network of 30+ ServiceCentres and can, therefore, offer this responsive service to the majority of the UK. The only restriction being the customer’s warehouse location(s) as the products have to physically be able to get from these destinations to the customer within the same day delivery window.

The tri-partnership has the opportunity to change the nature of online shopping as each party expects other retailers to look for ways in which to replicate ASOS.COM’s success. To date, and still for the majority of retailers, next day delivery is the ‘quickest’ option. However, if a shopper misses the Friday cut off time they would most likely have to wait till Tuesday before they received their delivery, a time delay of 4-5 days. CitySprint operates 24x7, 365 days a year and now ASOS.COM customers can either select an evening delivery (on the same day) or choose a selected day, which can be a Saturday or even a Bank Holiday.

The ASOS.COM service also relies upon MetaPack’s technology and the development CitySprint underwent to ensure its own system speaks ‘ASOS.COM and MetaPack language’.

Bel Shergill, CitySprint's Retail Sector Development Manager, commented: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with ASOS.COM and MetaPack on this innovative delivery solution. CitySprint works across many different industries and prides itself on being able to meet and exceed the delivery challenges the industry in question faces.  Working with the delivery software leader, MetaPack, was an important part of this relationship and testament to the fact that CitySprint operates a ‘can do’ culture.”

Patrick Wall, CEO of MetaPack is “Proud to be working with ASOS.COM and CitySprint on these new and exciting delivery options as they are once again breaking new ground by being one of the first UK retailers to offer a same day service on such a wide range of products.” He goes on to say, “This functionality is part of our broader multicarrier solution and we are working with ASOS.COM on further developments in their delivery options which are all being made possible through the flexibility of our platform.”

Hilton Eachus, Customer Delivery Manager, at ASOS.COM, explains their decision behind offering the same day service "Even though our customers are happy with our delivery options we are determined to constantly evolve, remaining ahead of the market and setting a precedent. We want to offer our customers as much choice as possible while maintaining the simplicity of our checkout process.” 

Stuart Hill, Head of Customer Logistics, at ASOS.COM goes on to explain “Over the last six months we have looked at enhancing our delivery options and going that extra mile for our customers. Our warehouse in Hemel Hempstead gives us perfect access to London and the M25 region and we wanted to utilise its location to offer a same day delivery service to our customers in the London area. CitySprint was chosen as our partner for this exciting new delivery option as they offered us a competitive price point and convenient cut off times, enabling ASOS.COM to offer our customers the choice of delivery of their goods on the same day as purchase”.