The Framers Forum

I had a chap from DPD in the shop earlier today who asked me if I would consider using the shop as a local pickup point for small parcels. He said:

I define the area I am prepared to allocate to parcel storage
No parcel bigger than a crisp box - certainly no car doors or tyres!
DPD provide the training and equipment
They pay me 60p per parcel handled
They respect my closed days and future holidays

On questioning the DPD man reckoned that a parcel can be dealt with in around 30 seconds (once used to the procedures) - I suspect it is likely to be a bit longer than that.

Whilst I'm certainly not going to get rich on something like this it could be an opportunity to get more people through the shop door. Does anybody have any experience of this or spot any potential traps?

From a customer perspective .... Our newsagent does it, I think I had an issue with cost but it was mainly the fact that if I did it with parcels2go I'd get my package collected, wouldn't have to take it to newsagent.

I have a very nice lady who takes in my parcels. 30 seconds?

Say hello, customer who's not done it before says 'I've got this parcel thing, are you the right person?' Fumbles in bag. They've put the label on wrong so you send them away. You have to reboot the scanner as it's crashed. and put the details in.

Plan b; regular comes in with twenty parcels. Scan them, sign for them, job done in a couple of minutes.

Maybe it is an average of 30 seconds. Not so sure about cross selling; is a person who sells things on eBay and finds the cheapest way to post the sort of person who has bespoke framing done?

I think any reason to get people through your door is a bonus, providing you are not so busy that it would be a nuisance to be doing this kind of thing. I work myself and I don't mind stopping what I'm doing every so often to sell a £50 frame, but not sure I would appreciate having to do it regularly for 60p.

I wouldn't think it was much option for customers to drop off/collection unless you are open for long hours, such as some convenience shop 8am to 10pm, so customers can collect parcels from you because they are out at work during the day, I think MyHermes who do a similar thing, they need you to be open in the evenings.
Some of our sells on eBay are sent to Argos shops so the buyer can collect from them outside office hours
Also what about your insurance, I would think you would need to tell your insurance company about this arrangement

All our local my here's are in Johnsons dry cleaners and they are not open at night.

We are just an unofficial but handy "well you will be at work won't you, so you won't mind" post office for family, friends and neighbours. So never a suggestion of any money in it obviously but as my Mum and Dad are the main users we don't complain

It sounds like easy money! What do you lose by going for it?

BTW, two of our delivery drivers have brought their own items to me for framing. (You never know what the benefits will be until you give it a try.)