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7. May 2020 | Press release

Nearly 50% of French Pickup parcel shops remained operational during the lockdown

7 May 2020 - 5,000 Pickup parcel shops that were able to remain open ensured the continuity of French parcel deliveries.

 

Since the beginning of the health crisis last March, many French businesses have had to interrupt their business activity. Despite these unprecedented circumstances, Pickup, the parcel shop network belonging to Groupe La Poste, managed to maintain a network of 5,000 retail parcel shops that were eligible to remain open during the lockdown. This continuity was made possible by the commitment and professionalism of Pickup's retail partners, and by adapting procedures to the health requirements.

As 11 May draws closer, Pickup and its retail parcel shops are stepping up their operations 

Since the beginning of the crisis, nearly 50% of the Pickup parcel shops have remained operational, while complying with all the health-protection measures that are essential to ensure everyone's safety. Two months on, Pickup is delighted with the positive feedback it has received from its retail partners and customers regarding the processes put in place and the quality of the business continuity service. 

By acting in this way, Pickup is now able to gradually reopen its network, while continuing to strictly comply with the protective measures required (social distancing, signature by code, PDA handled only by the retailers, etc.). We anticipate opening 70% of the network during the week of 11 May, and having nearly 10,000 parcel shops operational the following week.

With 11 May approaching, large e-commerce customers - some of which have already started to open up again while others are ready to gradually re-launch their businesses - are still working with Pickup to determine the best way to proceed and under what conditions.

A few days before the easing of the lockdown in France, Pickup remains mobilised to help support the economic recovery as much as possible. It is also time to make an initial assessment of the impact of crisis, which highlighted the exceptional resources, professionalism and unfailing commitment of the Pickup network, which was the only parcel shop network to ensure service continuity during the lockdown period.

"More than ever, we have seen just how solid and reliable our parcel shop network is. A couple of weeks ago, the leading application for consumer-to-consumer product sales reopened using our Pickup Shop2Shop service offer," says André-Jean Magniez, before adding: "Our retail partners and carriers demonstrated their ability to adapt and reinvent themselves during the height of the crisis, so we are confident as regards the period of gradual reopening that is now underway."  

A large number of Pickup parcel shops have remained operational since the start of the lockdown

"All of our retail partners that were eligible to remain open, pursuant to the French government's decree of 15 March, were contacted the day after the government's announcements. A large proportion of them agreed to continue their Pickup operations, allowing us to keep an average of 48% of our network open during the lockdown," says André-Jean Magniez, Director of the Pickup Network.

During the lockdown period, online orders have increased significantly (+ 15% according to the consulting firm Escal Consulting).
In order to continue operating in this unique and unprecedented context, Pickup parcel shops complied with all the applicable health and safety measures put in place to protect their health and their customers’ health. In addition to these precautions, Pickup adapted its operational procedures for picking-up and dropping off parcels, so as to avoid any risk of contamination. Consequently, since the beginning of the crisis, retail parcel shops have had to check the identity of their customers at distance and place the signature on the PDA using a specific code (the shop keeper is therefore the only person who handles the device and signs in place of the recipient). Finally, the parcels are no longer given to the recipient directly by hand, but placed on intermediate support such as a table or a counter.

In order to ensure transparency and reassure customers, all these measures are communicated in advance in an email from Pickup informing customers that their parcels are available.
To facilitate the work of its parcel shop partners, Pickup also provided them with communication tools about protective gestures and the new procedures in force, including a COVID charter for their customers.

 

About Pickup France

A subsidiary of Groupe La Poste and DPDgroup, Pickup is the leading ouf-of-home parcel delivery service in France, with 10,500 parcel shops and 400 lockers.
The Pickup parcel shops receive daily deliveries from the carriers Colissimo, Chronopost and DPD France.
The Pickup point delivery service is proposed by more than 8,000 online retailers: Veepee, Showroomprivé, Sarenza, CDiscount, Zalando, Amazon, Orange, Nespresso, i.run, Sephora, Mango, Decathlon, etc.
Pickup also provides several solutions to meet the challenges of urban logistics and last-mile delivery, especially through partnerships with retailers and supermarket chains.
The Pickup network is also present with 46,000 points in 27 countries around the world, through the various entities of DPDgroup, Groupe La Poste’s international parcel delivery network, which is the largest in Europe.
Pickup’s head office is based in the Paris region and the company employs 250 people.
More information on our website https://www.pickup.fr/

For more information

Pickup France press contact

Olivia Chabbert

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