Press releases
Full range of services for online retailers with YellowCube
Swiss Post is rounding off the services it offers business customers in the booming e-commerce market. Online retailers can now outsource all of their distance selling activities to Swiss Post, following the launch of the YellowCube logistics solution. Its centrepiece is a fully automated storage and picking facility. This allows Swiss Post to handle everything from order processing, marketing, payment, end-to-end logistics and customer service. Meanwhile, online shoppers enjoy a high level of convenience when sending and receiving parcels. Swiss Post delivers parcels in the evenings and on Saturdays or to parcel terminals for collection around the clock. And customers can specify online where Swiss Post should send their missed parcels. Returns are collected by the mail carrier directly from the customer’s doorstep. This unique service in Switzerland underscores Swiss Post’s strategic focus on the e-commerce market.
Rich Content Section
The e-commerce market is growing yearly by 5 to 10 percent in Switzerland. Shipping volumes are growing, online shoppers expect rapid delivery times and the number of returns is rising. Such trends create major logistical challenges for online retailers, which is why the demand for outsourcing solutions on the market has grown. After a two-year development phase, YellowCube, Swiss Post’s all-in e-commerce logistics solution, began operating in April 2014. The solution handles product storage and picking, parcel packing and the entire returns management system. Together with the logistics services that are upstream and downstream of YellowCube processes, (goods collection at the suppliers, as well as shipping and return shipping), Swiss Post is the only provider in Switzerland to offer a one-stop e-commerce logistics solution.
Highly automated
The centrepiece of YellowCube is a fully automated storage and picking facility at the Swiss Post logistics centre in Oftringen. This is where online retailers’ goods are stored. When an order comes in, robots transport the relevant item to an employee, who then packs it and encloses the necessary documents, flyers and vouchers. Thanks to its proximity to the Härkingen parcel centre, YellowCube parcels are quickly dispatched for delivery. Online customers do not send returns back to the retailer, but instead to Oftringen where Swiss Post checks the goods and stores them accordingly. Such automation helps create rapid online retail logistics processes, allowing orders to be placed even later with next-day delivery, for example. It is online SMEs that benefit most from YellowCube’s competitive logistics infrastructure and efficiency gains that are normally only available to large providers with specific know-how.
Receive parcels conveniently
Swiss Post offers online shoppers various options to make sending and receiving parcels even easier. For instance, it delivers items in the evenings and on Saturdays. Customers can have their consignments sent to My Post 24 parcel terminals at presently around 15 different locations in Switzerland. And recipients can decide online when and where they receive their missed parcels and registered letters. They can also have their returns conveniently collected from home with the pick@home service.
Growth through service bundling
To generate additional growth, Swiss Post is increasingly offering its customers products from a single source, comprising services from its various divisions. Its strategic focus in the coming years will be on the e-commerce market.