Retail is not dead

CLIPPER LOGISTICS, part of GXO since last year’s acquisition, has long been laser-focused on the retail sector. CEO Tony Mannix explains: “We see ourselves as a retail solutions provider more than a 3PL, because our entire business model has been about supporting retailers, helping them think about what’s coming next.”

What’s coming next has, in fact, been a long time coming. Collaboration has been a great idea for logistics, in theory, for many a year. Could its moment be here at last? Tony believes so.

“The realisation at the moment in retail is that collaboration, just as happened through Covid, is the way forward. The reality is now that sharing resources, inventory location, transport, and systems, gives retailers flexibility and helps them grow.”

This is happening alongside redoubled effort to maximise store estate. 

Tony explains: “Don’t get me wrong, the genie is out of the bottle with online retail, but it is heartening to see the Government support the High Street, as it is valuable, it is part of the community. There’s no getting away from the footfall pressures, but it is a fact that retail is a social activity as well as a shopping activity. Retail is not dead, it is reinventing itself.”

Tony sees Click & Collect as an important step in this reinvention and outlines how Clipper uses its expertise to help retailers work store estates more effectively. 

“The big advantage is that we can run parcels much more efficiently to store as a transport provider than a carrier solution can to homes.

“The truth is that when Royal Mail strikes hit and parcel carriers were swamped with volume over Peak, our delivery operation never missed a beat.”

“We delivered 1 million parcels over a three week period, with volume going up. Our ClickLink solution has been operating since 2016 and now has 40 retailers and brands on the network, with 1,300 drop locations in the network, all stores.

“On top of that, we have Boomerang, our returns management solution, used by John Lewis, ASOS and others, where we are able to manage the returns process to maximise margins, and minimise waste.

“If we bring them together, then the returns use the backhaul of the delivery routes, creating greater efficiencies.”

Click & Collect is about more than efficiency though, says Tony. It gets right to the heart of why there are stores in the first place. So people can talk to people, face-to-face, eye-to-eye. 

He says: “We’ve been asking ourselves, why don’t we transport goods for Click & Collect in transit packaging. For example, if a man orders a jacket, two sizes, we deliver it to store in a shroud, as opposed to full cardboard box, which allows store staff to say, ‘what don’t you try them on?’ and they can give the buyer an immediate refund for the one they don’t want.”

This approach releases inventory much faster for retailer, so they can sell more in season, at full margin. 

eCommerce has driven the logistics revolution of the last 20 years, but it is interesting to note that smart use of ‘old-school’ trunking to stores, and sharing multi-user facilities, is a big part of gaining success for the modern, Omnichannel retailer.

For more information, visit www.clippergroup.co.uk