Productivity Pulse Episode 3

Hear directly from our experts—Sue, Simon, & James—who share real-world trends, new data findings, and actionable productivity insights 

In this episode they discuss why parcel pickup times vary from 27 seconds to three minutes on average and show how storage design, retrieval systems, and colleague headsets drive speed, safety, and sales. The chat covers the sales uplift from parcel traffic, the strain of returns, and how lockers and paid returns could shift behaviour this year.

• Wait time trends and the drivers of delay
• Best-in-class setup for retrieval and storage
• Store factors that create parcel hotspots
• Basket uplift and the halo beyond the collection
• Handling returns without blocking operations
• Staffing models, headsets, and pickup points

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Chapters

• 0:09 Setting The Scene After Holidays
• 0:44 Parcel Pickup Becomes A Store Service
• 1:45 Wait Times: Best, Average, Worst
• 2:37 What Retrieval Systems Look Like
• 4:21 Volume Variations By Store Factors
• 5:46 Design Fixes And Storage Placement
• 6:47 Security, Cages, And Theft Risk
• 7:42 Basket Uplift And Halo Effect
• 9:16 Returns Create The Same Headaches
• 10:05 Staffing, Headsets, And Pickup Points
• 11:33 Lockers, Trials, And Heated Units
• 12:50 Progress, Constraints, And Store Retrofits
• 14:32 Paid Returns, Customer Behaviour, Outlook
• 16:32 Wrap Up And Sign Off

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:05

Welcome to the Productivity Pulse. This is our third episode, and Sue and James join me as usual. Hi Sue. Hi James. Thank you for joining my co-hosts. So we're coming out of Christmas at the time of recording, and we've probably passed the point of saying Happy New Year to everybody by now. But I suspect we've all received a parcel or picked up a parcel pre or post that period. Some of those journeys will have been smooth, some may be a bit agitated, and you may have gone and bought something else in the shop when you were you were there or not. And I know Sue you wanted to kind of touch on this today around the whole parcel retrieval collection and share some kind of stats you've seen from a culmination of three or four studies over the last uh quarter or so.

SPEAKER_00: 0:53

Yes. And I always the parcels have become it's the standard thing that particularly convenience type locations are looking for extra services that they can offer their customers that will help bring them to their shops to buy things. And that parcels is something that's most of them will offer. And actually at times it can be a huge challenge when there's big parcel volumes, because you know, we see people struggling with huge mountains of things, which has impact for the store operation and also for the customer collecting the parcels too.

SPEAKER_01: 1:24

So do we we've got peaks clearly, Christmas VM one. I assume when you say all the peaks, you're talking about the the Black Friday month that now is there's a other event throughout the year. I suppose maybe Easter, not so much, depending on your business, hiring DIY. We've got kind of seasonal events. What I'll hazard a guess, a couple of minutes maybe, but what's the kind of typical durations you're seeing where people are coming to collect a parcel and wait as a customer?

SPEAKER_00: 1:51

For customers, our average has gone down actually. It used to be about a minute and a half, and the typical retail average that we see now is closer to a minute and a quarter. So generally it's been coming down. The best in class that we've ever seen is about 27 seconds, and that was a pert unit that was specifically for parcel pickup and had sort of pigeonhole type arrangement behind it. The longest we've seen have been horrifically long in some ways. So the longest average that we've seen is about three minutes, and that's an average. So, you know, for every customer that was waiting two minutes, a customer was waiting, you know, four minutes to get that average sort of thing. And it's driven by a couple of things. It's driven by one, how far the colleague has to walk to get a parcel. So if the counter's right at the front of the shop for parcel's in the warehouse, it's a long walk and back. And yeah, then it's also driven by is there a retrieval system, or do you literally walk into a room or a cupboard that's just rammed full of parcels and you just search to everyone until you find the one that you're looking for? So they're the main drivers of it.

SPEAKER_01: 2:57

And when when you say retrieval system, for those that maybe don't haven't seen one or work with them, what does that usually mean?

SPEAKER_00: 3:05

So a retrieval system, it could be as simple as putting them in alphabetical order by surname that's being collected. That has some challenges because how do you make sure you've got enough A and B boxes, for example, that can cope with a huge parcel and a small parcel and all the rest of it. And then you do get variations in the volume of names that go by a certain letter. So I know from my time as a pharmacist when we used to organise things alphabetic events, you know, you don't get many that's endly X and Z, but you get, you know, some letters you get lots and lots of. So that's quite a challenge. So what a lot of places have is they'll have a system where they'll you'll have the, you might have the customer's name. It's best if it's done DJ Splend, that you take the customer name and it tells you this customer's parcel is in Coast Box and G3, and you go straight to it and it's there. So that's the sort of thing I mean by a retrieval system. It's finding the parcel you need for.

SPEAKER_02: 4:05

So I might be being naive here too, because I mean I order parcels to be collected in in retailers all the time, whether it's click and collect or whether it's just you know deliver a third-party parcel to a pickup point. I assume brands have standard ways that they deal with these retrieval systems, or do they just leave it to chance and leave it to the local locations to arrange it themselves?

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

Unless it's going in a locker, which is a sort of different thing. So if the brands are putting it in a locker, then it's use a retrieval system. Otherwise, literally a brand will walk in with a big or a small pile of parcels, hand them over the counter. And if you think most of these retailers that are doing parcel services will be doing more than one service. So they might have pickups for three or four different brands. So they can end up with, you know, a big mix of different stuff that they've got behind the counter or wherever it is that they've stashed it all.

SPEAKER_02: 4:58

So as a consumer, right, it's a bit of a lottery when I walk through the door, how long it's going to take the team to find my parcel.

SPEAKER_00: 5:06

Yes, potentially. And it's interesting, you get some real hot spots for both click and collect and then these parcels. So you'll get some shops that are just bigger than busier than others. And it depends on things like shops that have got a good car park outside or ability to park outside tend to be busier than ones where you can't get there with a car. So it sounds obvious, but there are retailers that deal with this and maybe you can get big variations in the the volumes that you get by store. If it's near a school and people are doing the school run, you know, it's there's all sorts of factors that can mean it's a really busy parcel.

SPEAKER_02: 5:42

And so if you're you have this disparate service across your across your locations or you're a store manager, what's what's the first thing you'd look at? If you're seeing it's taking two, three minutes to find a parcel, what's the first thing you'd you'd look to to do?

SPEAKER_00: 5:57

The first thing is to try and find a way of keeping those parcels close to where the handout point is, which is usually a kiosk store counter. In an ideal world, and and where you're seeing new convenience stores open, it's being designed in that there'll be a storage cupboard, or they'll pull the cash-taking bit forward slightly to create a void space behind where there's actual storage. So that's that's the ideal way to do it. It's a real challenge when you've got perhaps a small cramp store, you've got you know an existing building that if you don't want to spend a lot of money putting that in, then that's where you end up with the compromises. But the idea is that you build a storage space near it. And that's what a lot of the bigger brands that have got more room to play with have been able as well.

SPEAKER_02: 6:43

Yeah, now maybe I'm I'm cheating a bit here because I can see that two-thirds of the time on the average uh parcel collection is walking and and retrieval. So that's clearly where the biggest where the biggest area is. If the parcels are closed, then it's about that retrieval system knowing knowing whose parcel is where, I guess.

SPEAKER_00: 7:00

Yeah, yeah, but the big thing is can you get them closer? The answer might be you think you can't, you know, and that's that's a big challenge. But then you can have a think about what is this a suitable place to have parcels or not, or how do we do it? Uh some brands have used a cage on the sales floor where they put the parcel things, they've got no other solutions and they'll put a roll cage, but they put a shroud round it with a a zip or whatever, so that people can't grab the parcels. Because that's the other thing is if you leave the parcels out on display, there's a real risk that they can get stolen for somebody to find out what's in it. So you know you have to think about keeping them safe as well.

SPEAKER_02: 7:41

Yeah, I mean it's a bit of a minefield. I again I'm sceptical about when I order a parcel, I typically go to the shop, pick it up, and then head off. I don't generally browse the store or or buy anything else, but I don't know how typical that is. I mean, from our data, how much business is this actually adding to these retailers? Are they kind of is it a loss leader for them and but it's worth getting people in the store because they're buying stuff, or are most people just coming in, taking up the time and then leaving again?

SPEAKER_00: 8:10

I guess there's if it's the shop that you regularly go to for your parcels, you probably use it as your shop for other regular things. So when you need a pint of milk, it's perhaps the one that you go to most as well. There's probably a halo effect that you can't see directly. When we've studied it and we looked at transactions where people are dropping off and picking up parcels, it can be between 10 to 25% of those transactions also have a purchase in them. Now that's likely to understate it slightly because if I come in with a massive armful of parcels, drop them off, and then I go and buy my shopping, obviously that wouldn't shop in the same transaction in the same uh interaction of a counter. But um but that's the sort of halo effect that we're gonna see.

SPEAKER_02: 8:54

Okay, so like one in four, one in five people is going and doing a shop at the uh at the same time. So I mean it feels like um it could it could be driving football and a real benefit for those brands, then was kind of different from what I expected.

SPEAKER_01: 9:08

Um you've talked so a lot about parcels being collected. Clearly, these journeys tend to be two-way as well, so you can drop off returns now in a lot of places. Does it does that cause a similar headache?

SPEAKER_00: 9:21

Yes, because you're getting it. What are you gonna do with them? You know, you do occasionally see places where they've had a load of returns and nobody's managed to move them yet. And kind of we've seen, you know, colleagues struggling to move behind the counter because there's so many parcels there. So yeah, it is it's that same headache. You know, are you gonna where are you going to put them? How are you gonna store them? And it's how you then put them somewhere safely so that when the delivery driver or whoever the courier comes to collect them, then you can hand them over in the in the way that they need them as well.

SPEAKER_02: 9:52

And then I have one question if it's okay, just about how you would organise who looked after the parcels in the store. So I imagine if you are in a small convenience store and somebody comes in to collect a parcel, you're the only person at the till, you can't leave the till unmanned, I'd imagine, while you're going to look for parcels. Like how how do brands deal with that and how does that have a knock-on effect on productivity in other parts of the store?

SPEAKER_00: 10:19

It can do. So it's a mix. So it depends on your layout and whether you can lock your tills so and kind of what level of risk products that you've got there. So some places you kind of can leave the till, particularly if you can, you know, you just pop in somewhere very close. And others, they'll have to, in the idea of world, they'd have like headsets or a radio or something that they don't call another colleague. That does mean that it's interrupting, so that other colleague will usually be put in stock or you know, not in inconvenience tabs tools, you're usually talking with just a small handful of colleagues or even two. So there aren't a huge number of people to choose from. So it's it's whoever's available and they're probably doing something else when they get into order.

SPEAKER_01: 11:02

And headsets must have helped that situation.

SPEAKER_00: 11:05

Yes, yeah, is by far the best way to do it. And in DIY, so it's the biggest not, but you know, some of the brands are trialing where there's a pickup point. So as a customer, when you're going to collect your order, you go to a pickup point and there isn't a colleague there, because we all know that having a colleague standing waiting in case a customer comes is not generally a good use of time. So you you press a button and that connects you to a colleague with a headset that can then find out what parcel name you're for, go and get it for you, and then meet you back at the collection point. So obviously it does interrupt the colleague from what we're doing, but the benefit it's beneficial that you're not having stompy hanging around waiting. It means you've got one less service point that you have to have covered for.

SPEAKER_01: 11:49

People have played with collection lockers as well in terms of 24 hours today, they're outside the store. So almost the in in post-type locker situation, which feels like a good alternative, but clearly comes with some operational challenges of if people don't collect, how do they keep them stocked? There's a a cost of the units which is significant as well. So is that is that something you you see more of Sue or just in kind of isolated trials at the moment?

SPEAKER_00: 12:16

We see quite a bit of it. Generally, it doesn't have much of an impact on the store team because you know it's the it's the third party that are using that space, so they'll be the people that come and empty the lockers, you know, do what needs doing with it. But I mean, as you all know, from trying to drop off the parcel, lockers aren't always the answer, are they?

SPEAKER_01: 12:35

Yeah. And we've seen retailers try and utilize them to put their product in as well, haven't they? So rather than collect from the shop, you collect from the locker.

SPEAKER_00: 12:46

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:47

And again, that seems to be smaller isolated trials at the moment rather than widespread.

SPEAKER_00: 12:54

Yeah. It's interesting, we have seen some lockers used quite innovatively for for hot food takeaway, where they've got heated lockers where, you know, I know we've seen quite a few times the phenomenon of drivers, often cycle riders, for the various delivery companies trying to struggle alongside customers in the in the usual counter bit to get parcels and kind of how they can use heated lockers to give them a a lot of them are now setting up dedicated driver pickup zones and using heated lockers again means that they can avoid having a colleague having to cover those two points.

SPEAKER_01: 13:33

So it feels like there's there's still a potential way to go with this to make it easier for certainly the the retailers that are doing this and the the hospitality companies quicker for customers, which is if that's what they want, or or maybe they want it longer for customers so they spend more time in the store and buy more. And it feels like it's further on than maybe the whole deliverer Uber Eats piece that's still in its infancy and people are struggling to get their heads around, and that's a whole other podcast in itself. Is that fair to say too people have made progress? But as store designs change, as technology changes, there's still opportunity.

SPEAKER_00: 14:10

Yeah, generally the people have made progress, and it tends to be you make a big step change in your progress. Because that's if you sort out your locations, then it's that that drives the time difference. So that's as I said, easy in a new store, you design it in. It's quite a challenge when you've got existing locations.

SPEAKER_01: 14:28

And just to finish with, since Christmas, people like ASOS have come out and they're gonna start to charge customers for returns now if it's over a certain threshold, so you can't just buy£100 worth of stuff and send£90 back. They don't they don't want that because there's clearly a cost involved both ways. People start to focus on wider costs in their business and returns and the kind of third-party logistics stuff will be huge. Do you think that's gonna drive volume back if it's easier to return to a store or free to return to a store, or do you think volume will plateau or even decline?

SPEAKER_00: 15:07

I don't know, and I don't think we've seen any evidence yet of where that's going. It does amaze me, kind of, that people pay relatively high amounts, it seems to me, for delivery and then potentially to return it as well. So I I don't it I think it'll depend on how price-sensitive people are to these things. Because you could say, well, it becomes a deteriorator, you buy less, but actually if you're not quite sensitive about delivery costs, then it won't be an issue and you'll carry on as you were.

SPEAKER_01: 15:34

James, to finish on a I suppose a consumer's point of view, if you put your your buying hat back on, if if you had to pay to send things back where it's free to drop it off in store, would that encourage you to go into the store and have a walk around and drop it off, or would you just kind of think, well, it's just part of the overall price?

SPEAKER_02: 15:50

I can only speak for my myself. I expect my wife's uh approach will be different, but I would do everything I could to avoid the charge. Yeah, yeah, we do. So I'm not a big buyer of stuff online though. I mean, I'm waiting to see how this changes like clearly all of these services have complexity installed, make it more difficult for people to do their jobs, make it harder to do the customer experience, and at some point somebody's gonna say, this was a strawberry comes back, it's gonna try and put the genie back in the bottle to make the metaphor or if that's later to see if that happens this year and people start saying, you know what, we're we've got a hub for this this kind of thing, although go somewhere else because we don't we don't want to do it anymore.

SPEAKER_01: 16:30

It's too complicated. I agree. It'd be uh it's gonna be an interesting year for all sorts of reasons we've talked about before and we will talk about on future podcasts. So thanks once again, James. Thanks too, and we'll catch up on the next episode. Thank you. Bye.