In looks like InPost UK is making headway with its plans for 2,000 parcel lockers across the UK, but rival ByBox has decided to pull out of the B2C locker market altogether.
Jonathan Smith, chairman of InPost UK, said volumes are continuing to grow and is signing up more retailers to the concept. It now has over 1,000 lockers in place and claims to have handled 5,000 parcels per night in the period leading up to Christmas last year.
But while InPost is confident about the future of its service, ByBox last month revealed that it would be pulling out of the B2C market with the closure of its MyByBox service. The move has allowed the company to shift its efforts back to its B2B field service and technical support operations.
“While we’re disappointed to discontinue the MyByBox service, we felt it was time to choose the sectors where we would be making key strategic investments to drive our next phase of growth," ByBox Group chief executive and founder Stuart Miller said.
"We decided to focus on our market leading offerings in field support, technical services and global locker technology. Our recent acquisitions, a host of new clients and expanded services drove us on in 2014. By aligning our efforts at the start of the year we hope to offer our clients a more efficient and rapid service, throughout 2015 and beyond,” he added.
InPost, however, says it has continued to see volumes grow since its introduction the UK market in 2013. Its focus is now on signing up mainstream retailers and is in the process of getting the service set up for a number of multichannel customers. One such retailer is Virgin Wines, which signed up just in time for the Christmas peak.
“However, alongside the well-known brands coming on board, we are seeing a growing number of SMEs and eBay resellers using the locker network as a convenient and cost-effective method of delivering items to their customers,” added Smith.