PUDO, a service that lets retailers and customers pick-up and drop-off packages at local locations, is enabling parcels to move as fast as Canada Post’s courier service – at up to 30 per cent less.
This service is available to retailers just in time to send their Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.
PUDO also provides “reverse logistics” that allows consumers to easily return online purchases. This is a pain point for many online retailers and customers given that around 5 to 20 per cent of purchased products are returned to them. It gets around the difficulty of customers don’t want to arrange shipment of these items back to the seller.
PUDO has a network of authorized partners known as “PUDO Points” that serve as locations where parcels are dropped off or sent from. These are typically local shops and corner stores like Hasty Market.
Although there are currently just a handful of PUDO Points in each major North American city, soon there will likely be a PUDO Points close to you. More than 2,200 locations are set to be rolled out in Canada and 3,000 in the U.S. in 2015 and 2016.
PUDO has also made ecommerce arrangements with some of North America’s most well-known retailers such as Amazon, eBay, Hudson’s Bay, and Walmart so that customers can choose to pick up their purchases at a nearby PUDO Point. They can also return items to the PUDO Points rather than ship them back to the retailer or take them to the store.
According to PUDO, businesses operating PUDO Points get paid above industry standards for every shipment handled and benefit from the additional foot traffic coming to their business.
Delivery is increasingly becoming a differentiating factor for many online retailers, and many are creating innovative solutions to get products to customers faster than before. While Amazon continues to test delivery drones, many Canadian businesses like retail startup SpotsHUB have managed to provide same-day delivery to customers using more conventional means – in their case, a fleet of delivery vehicles.
PUDO provides retailers a pay-as-you-go model, charging $3 for a shipment weighing up to 10 lbs, and $5 shipments weighing 10 to 30 lbs. Packages are held at PUDO Points for 5 business days, and there’s an additional $1 per day fee beyond that.