The growth of e-commerce
Smarter, faster, simpler sending and receiving
The whole world is our shop. We have things delivered, preferably at a place and time that suits us best. Smart home appliances collect and share all kinds of data. In the future, you won’t even have to place an order. The kitchen cupboard will send out a signal saying you’re out of apple sauce.
PostNL makes sending and receiving products ordered online easier and easier. We remove obstacles in online ordering. And we research how technology will be able to unburden the consumer even more, for example when ordering their weekly groceries.
Fulfilment and delivery under one roof
Our ambition is to become the logistics e-commerce player of the Benelux. It is with good reason that we work to innovate in our current markets and use new techniques to improve our business processes. An example of that is the robotised storage and order processing system at our fulfilment centre in Houten. Having fulfilment and distribution under one roof enables us to offer entrepreneurs flexibility and high quality. We also ensure rapid order processing, allowing us to contribute to a speedier delivery of the item to the consumer. In doing so, we help customers with successful entrepreneurship.
More and more online shops and producers outsource tasks in storage, order processing, packaging and delivery. We also organise the total cross-border logistics for online shops and local transporters. That means that we can fully take over your e-commerce activities. To do so, we connect our logistics networks and integrate our IT networks worldwide, including between online shops and various e-commerce platforms.
The PostNL robotised storage and order processing system
The system is at the PostNL fulfilment centre. With our robots, we process online shop orders 24/7, 365 days a year. We work quickly, with a large number of orders to be processed. This allows us to meet the needs of our customers. We are able to handle peaks very well.
Easy sending and receiving
With PostNL’s new parcel and letter machine, we are making sending and receiving parcels even easier. The machine is available in your neighborhood day and night. We are testing the machine for a year in Almere to find out whether it meets the needs of easily sending and receiving parcels. It is also a letterbox at the same time.
Smart packaging
In collaboration with Delft University of Technology and packaging company Daklapack, we are developing handy packaging with which we can deliver products that do not actually fit through the letterbox. This way, customers will no longer have to stay home to receive their orders. And companies will be able to send more and more products directly to the customer. One of the packages is for clothing. If the customer is not satisfied with the clothes, they can return them to the webshop in the same packaging.
Letterbox too small? Deliver differently
Because we deliver every day, we know addresses. With that knowledge, we have an idea of whether a letterbox package will fit through their customer’s letterbox. That way, the webshop can rest assured that they are guaranteeing 24-hour delivery. Or help a client choose between delivering one big parcel or several smaller parcels.
Pieter van Prooijen, Product Developer
We pick up Return Mail Items, even within the hour
Local Express is PostNL’s logistics guinea pig in Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The consumer wants to have more and more influence on the time and place of delivery. Local Express meets this demand with fast, custom delivery options. Those are tested in the city by Local Express in small pilots and nationally rolled out by PostNL in the event of success. A great example is Return on Appointment, which was developed with Zalando and is now offered nationally. The customer selects the time they want their return items to be picked up on the website. In Amsterdam and Rotterdam, they can select a time within an hour. PostNL picks up the parcel and returns it to the webshop.