Clipper Logistics, in its own words, enjoyed an excellent year’s trading for the twelve months ended 30 April 2015.
It seems its buy of electronics returns specialist Servicecare Support Services late last year was canny, complementing the general merchandise and retail returns service it was already offering customers under its Boomerang brand.
With returns management only increasing in importance for retailers who are selling more and more goods to consumers online – Clipper references research by IMRG that the UK e-commerce market stood at £104bn in 2014 after 14% annual growth with a similar rate of increase expected during the next two years – the operator has positioned itself perfectly to catch the e-commerce wave that Insider Trends predicts will see one third of UK sales conducted online by 2022.
It’s seen the phrase omni-channel come to the fore, an evolution of multichannel in that retailers are increasingly offering their customers flexibility in not only the method of order placement but also in respect of delivery destination. That can be collection from store or from a nominated third-party location (if not the customer’s home).
Clipper underlined this in its annual results by quoting one of its customers who described 2014 as “the year that Click and Collect really came into play with 56% of online orders being collected in shops as opposed to home delivered”.
The genie is truly out of the bottle, and with Clipper’s recent Click and Collect deal with John Lewis it has got out of the blocks quickly, building on its not inconsiderable expertise in this growth area.
As Clipper’s executive chairman Steve Parkin ventured, Clipper is “exceptionally well-positioned to benefit from the further significant growth expected in the online retail sector."
Based on its current performance and apparent momentum, it's hard to argue against that prognosis.