News from the Wire

Hatfield is first town in UK to make a Christmas return

Monday, December 30, 2024 — 12:49:58 (EST)

Welwyn Garden City, 30 December 2024: Collect+, the in-store parcel service from PayPoint, has revealed a resident in Hatfield, Hertfordshire became the first person in the UK to return a potentially unwanted Christmas present.

In the early hours of Christmas Day at 7.06am, the first parcel was returned to a Collect+ store in Hatfield. The next return was made in Batley at 7.17am. In the run up to, and over the festive period, the Collect+ network managed more than 6,141,981 parcels in December so far as, people planned for presents to be sent and delivered ahead of the big day.

On Christmas Day itself, most returns took place in Birmingham where 50 people sent back parcels. This was followed by Redbridge, with 47 people returning parcels, and Manchester, with 44 people returning parcels on the day. In total, 1,738 people used the Collect+ service at their local convenience store to make a return on Christmas Day.

Nick Williams, Director of Parcel Services at PayPoint, said "The festive period is a whirlwind of activity for our retailers. The surge in online shopping leads to an influx of deliveries, especially with many late shoppers looking to secure the secure last-minute delivery slots. However, it's clear that not every gift hits the mark, so while some people are waking up in the festive spirit, others are making early morning dashes to their local convenience store to return unwanted presents that weren’t quite right.

“Our retailers are conveniently positioned - and often the only retailer open - on Christmas Day acting as the perfect solution for that last minute forgotten item for the roast or returning the duplicate or unwanted gift. We understand that returns are just as much a part of the holiday tradition as the purchases themselves and why our network of retailers are available around the clock meaning that whenever you need to process a return, there will be a store close by for you."

The data comes from Collect+, the largest carrier agnostic parcel network in the UK of over 13,500 local stores, working with leading brands like Amazon, eBay, Yodel, DPD, DHL, Royal Mail and Parcel2Go.

Swiftest Christmas Day Returns Top 10 07.06am, Hatfield 7.17am, Batley 7.30am, Colchester 7.52am, Westcliff-on-Sea 8.06am, Bracknell 8.09am, Manchester 8.18am, Birmingham 8.23am, Shrewsbury 8.34am, Birmingham 8.56am, Bexhill-on-Sea

ENDS

About PayPoint Group  

For tens of thousands of businesses and millions of consumers, we deliver innovative technology and services that make life a little easier.

The PayPoint Group serves a diverse range of organisations, from SME and convenience retailer partners, to local authorities, government, multinational service providers and e-commerce brands. Our products are split across four core business divisions:

In Shopping, we enhance retailer propositions and customer experiences through EPoS services via PayPoint One, card payment technology, Counter Cash, ATMs and home delivery technology partnerships in over 60,000 SME and retailer partner locations across multiple sectors. Our retail network of over 30,000 convenience stores is larger than all the banks, supermarkets and Post Offices put together.

In E-commerce, we deliver best-in-class customer journeys through Collect+, a tech-based delivery solution that allows parcels to be picked up, dropped off and sent at thousands of local stores. In Payments and Banking, we give our clients and their customers choice in how to make and receive payments quickly and conveniently. This includes our channel-agnostic digital payments platform, MultiPay, offering solutions to clients across cash, card payments, direct debit and Open Banking. PayPoint also supports its eMoney clients with purchase and redemption of eMoney across its retail network.

In Love2shop, we provide gifting, employee engagement, consumer incentive and prepaid savings solutions to thousands of consumers and businesses. Love2shop is the UK’s number one multi-retailer gifting provider, offering consumers the choice to spend at more than 140 high-street and online retail partners. Park Christmas Savings is the UK’s biggest Christmas savings club, helping over 350,000 families manage the cost of Christmas, by offering a huge range of gift cards and vouchers from some of the biggest high street names.

Together, these solutions enable the PayPoint Group to create long-term value for all stakeholders, including customers, communities and the world we live in.

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Source: Company press release.