One of the largest Russian parcel terminal networks and partner Yandex.Market – InPost stopped shipping. About it reported owner "Ink-Market" Maxim Shmelev. “Our partner, the Inpost company, announced the suspension of the provision of services in Russia from December 16. Therefore, we are stopping delivery to InPost parcel terminals,” he said.
General Director of InPost Andrey Chechin announced that he was leaving the company. "100% growth year on year. 380 parcel terminals and 600 pickup points. Wonderful, bright, persistent team! Persistent and interesting clients for whom we built a new sales channel. Energetic, tough, but reliable and driving partners from SDEK and Yandex! Made from Qiwipost Western InPost and came up with Post Office 2.0 with production in Russia. Thanks to everyone for their help and support. Now I live outside of InPost.ru Write about new projects until it’s booked,” he said.
InPost refused to comment on the situation, promising to later contact the media with a detailed statement. “We’re still working,” the interlocutor added. website.
“The inPost company today informed Yandex Market that the company is suspending its activities in Russia for an indefinite period. Due to this, stores are currently not able to deliver orders to parcel terminals. All shipping orders placed through Yandex.Delivery before December 15 will be processed and fulfilled. Stores can use other popular types of delivery by selecting the necessary options in our interface - Russian Post, courier, or pick-up points,” said Yandex.Market.
It is not yet clear who will work with Yandex.Delivery instead of inPost. On December 1, the company began cooperation with the network PickPoint. However, parcel terminals from this network are not yet available on Yandex.Market. The company refused to say whether they have plans to cooperate with Pulse Express which is literally today.
CEO Pulse Express Alexey Zhukov, in turn, told the site that his company plans to start working with Yandex.Delivery. “Igor, a feature of our platform is the ability to work with many logistics operators,” he added.
Deputy General Director for Commercial Affairs PickPoint Grigory Frenkin says that PickPoint has completed integration with Yandex.Market and is ready to take over delivery through the parcel terminal network. “The demand for delivery of online orders through parcel machines in the country is growing every year and they have already become a mandatory channel for online stores. “PickPoint accounts for more than 80% of the total volume of deliveries through parcel machines. PickPoint's plans for 2017 are to increase its network by 1.5 - 2 times, mainly due to the regions. Currently, PickPoint operates a network of more than 800 self-service terminals and 1,100 order pick-up points,” says the expert.
The suspension of InPost's activities is more a pattern than an exception, says co-owner Apiship Denis Ivannikov. “The small number of post offices, coupled with the domestic volume of parcels declining under pressure from global retailers and the inability to attract the rapidly growing cross-border flow, sets a disappointing trend,” he believes. According to Ivannikov, at the moment, the success of postomat operators can be guaranteed by the presence of at least one of two factors, either actual support with a large volume of parcels, or an ultra-low price for the installation and operation of an extensive network. Moreover, the network must have at least 2,000 post offices and be present in at least 1,500 settlements.
“InPost has been integrated into our API protocol and is available to all users of the APISHIP platform. Of course, the loss of delivery points is an unpleasant fact, but the market will cope with this quickly enough, and the migration of customer demand will strengthen the remaining post-tomat network operators,” says Ivannikov.
Director and co-owner of the company reWorker Dmitry Novikov recalls that the peculiarity of the agreement between inPost and Delivery was that Yandex promoted parcel terminals under its label. “The post offices were branded under Yandex Delivery. Cool for YaD and less interesting for me, for example,” he says.
Three days ago, a message appeared on the inPost website that “during the season of increased traffic congestion and in the event of difficult weather conditions, in some cases, delivery times for items may be increased, despite the measures we are taking to maintain prompt and high-quality work.”
At the end of November the parent company Integer.pl S.A. decided to leave the Russian market and liquidate the Russian company "Easy pack rush". The decision is associated with disappointing prospects for business development in Russia in the absence of a significant increase in the number of parcel terminals in the country.
InPost is one of the largest automated delivery networks in Russia: about 400 parcel terminals in 35 regions of Russia. InPost branches operate in the UK, France, Italy, Poland, Canada and other countries of the world. There are more than 5,000 parcel terminals in the InPost international network. Previously, the network operated under the Qiwi Post brand, and its shareholder was the Qiwi group.
Pochtomat (postal machine), or parcel locker - what is it? This is the name given to automated terminals for issuing parcels and goods purchased in catalogs or online stores. It is equipped with built-in cells of different sizes in which orders are stored, a touch screen to control the process of receiving orders, and a console panel. The parcel terminal is also equipped with a special bill acceptor and a slot for paying for purchases using a plastic card. Parcel terminals and pickpoint delivery points are located in large retail chains, shopping centers or any other high-traffic areas.
Newest delivery method
Automated terminals began to be used in Russia at the end of 2010. Systems that simplify the issuance of shipped orders are new not only in our country, but throughout the world. They appeared about ten years ago. A high-tech delivery solution using terminal stations for sending and delivering small-sized parcels, that is, a parcel locker (as this is known in many Western European countries). The concept of automated systems came to Russia and took hold four years ago.
What is a parcel locker?
What is it and how does this control terminal differ from a regular payment terminal? In this case, the machine is combined with a cabinet with lockable cells of different sizes. The systems can be installed both indoors and outdoors. They are mainly intended for issuing goods and shipments with the possibility of payment. Some devices are additionally equipped with the function of receiving parcels with the possibility of payment and registration.
The implementation of these systems is carried out by logistics companies (postal operators of some countries signpost.com, packstation.de), delivery companies (bybox.com, smartpost.ee), etc. Thanks to their use, it is possible to achieve minimization at the stage of receiving the parcel at the offices of delivery departments . In addition, almost 24/7 operation is ensured.
How does a parcel locker work?
Dispensing systems work in this way: representatives of the owner of automated terminals load cells with goods and parcels at a certain frequency and notify the recipient about this. For these purposes, email, SMS messages and other communication channels are used.
When ordering goods, the buyer selects the most convenient parcel terminals and pickpoint delivery points from the proposed list. In order to pick up the goods, the recipient must enter a code that will be sent to him along with a message about the arrival of the order. Then a cell will open in the parcel locker, in which the order will be located. In addition to entering the details, the fact of receipt must be confirmed in various ways: video or photographic recording, obtaining a digital signature or a sample signature of the recipient. Now you know how to receive your order at the post office.
The sender learns about the issuance of the order and receipt of funds through the owner of the automated system. If the product is not suitable for the recipient, the terminal provides a return function. If he has previously activated the corresponding service, he can immediately return the product or shipment to the device.
Why a parcel locker?
A goods delivery terminal or parcel locker (we have already found out what it is) is a rather unusual name. In modern Russian there are many variations of the name of the terminal: postomat, postomat, postomat and postamat. This is due to the fact that this terminology is used by a small number of people. A more suitable option for defining this system would be the term “parcel machine”, since it is more consistent with the requirements of the Russian language. In addition, this term has the Latin root post and the addition mat - this is how the network of these ATMs is designated by Western European postal operators.
Advantages of using a parcel locker
So, a parcel locker - what is it and what are the advantages of using this parcel delivery service? First of all, you should pay attention to the speed of delivery: by placing an order on the website, you will receive the parcel within three days at any time convenient for you. In this case, you choose the address of the parcel terminal yourself from the list offered to you. You will receive and pay for the goods in one place, which is also very convenient. The receiving process will take no more than one minute. The confidentiality of the order received by the client is guaranteed. If the recipient cannot pick up the parcel personally, then a person trusted by him can do this. To do this, you just need to tell him the address of the parcel terminal and the parcel code.
Please note that the automated terminal does not issue change, but Pickpoint provides the opportunity to credit excess funds to the account of the mobile phone you specified. You can also get change at the office of the company that owns the terminals. Choose the option “Receive change at the office” and come to the specified address with the receipt. Upon presentation of your passport, the cashier will give you change in cash. Agree, a quite convenient innovation is a parcel locker. It’s also not difficult to figure out how to use the system.
Prevalence of terminals in Russia
Today in Russia there are over two hundred automated terminals for issuing parcels in more than sixty cities of the country. And every year the network of parcel terminals or post offices is steadily increasing. Automated stations are produced by various companies: QIWI Post, Logibox, Pick Point and others. To install them, places where maximum human traffic is concentrated are chosen, which is very convenient for users due to the ability to choose the terminal closest to their home. In addition, such automated terminals are installed in large shopping and business centers, train stations, or simply on the central streets of the city. The list of addresses of automatic stations can be viewed when filling out an application or on the websites of companies involved in their production, installation and maintenance.
InPost: free quest “find a parcel terminal with your parcel” | photo: pixabay.comThere is no need to explain to anyone what parcel machines are now - this business is developing, as they say, at rapid pace, forcing traditional mail and courier services to make room... But in practice it turns out that using the service is not as easy as indicated in the instructions on the official website services and on the websites of partner online stores...
As stated on the InPost website, parcel terminals have three advantages. Firstly, convenience: they work around the clock and are within walking distance. At any time of the day or night, walk to the metal box you need and receive your goods. Secondly, fast delivery: after ordering in the online store, the products are promised to be delivered and “put” in a cell within a period of several hours to a day. Finally, thirdly, ease of use: no queues, no confusion, everything is simple and accessible...
But what really?
But this is how it should be ideally. What's the reality? In fact, I had to use the InPost service when ordering from one of the bookstores that sells rare books that are not available anywhere else. The store offered a choice of ordering courier delivery for 300 rubles and provided that delivery would be within 2-3 days, or ordering delivery to a parcel terminal on the same day (or the next) for a hundred rubles. Since, judging by the proposed map, the parcel terminal was located not far from my place of work - near the VDNKh metro station, I did not hesitate for a second.
So, the order was placed and I began to wait for an SMS notification that my order was waiting for me at the designated place. Alas, the promise to deliver the package on the same day turned out to be just a promise. Over the next 24 hours, no one delivered anything to me either. A couple of days later, I must admit, I had already forgotten about the order, when suddenly (on the third day!) I received a message that the order had been delivered and was waiting for me at the postal terminal at VDNKh at the address: Mira Avenue, building 150, Cosmos Hotel . There were also detailed instructions on how to find a parcel terminal on the hotel premises: “The parcel terminal is located inside the building on the ground floor, to the left of the door.”
Is everything clear and understandable? No matter how it is!
The guards don't know anything
I arrive at the Cosmos Hotel, go inside the building, passing security guards with metal detectors who take everyone entering for a terrorist and search them inside and out, turn left (all according to the instructions) and see a coffee shop in front of me. Nearby there is a winding staircase, a string of ATMs and payment terminals, bank branches and currency exchange offices, vending machines with various products - anything, except a parcel machine!
After wandering back and forth around the ground floor and deciding that the description on the InPost website had simply confused left and right, I took a walk in the opposite direction. There are many cafes and restaurants, retail shops, souvenir kiosks and even a cellular phone store. But there is no parcel machine!
As a reasonable person, the first thing I do is go to the concierge desk (who knows about everything that operates on the hotel premises). But to my surprise, the man behind the counter widened his eyes at my question: “Checkmate? – he asks again in surprise, as if hearing this word for the first time in his life. – We definitely don’t have that. This is not a post office, this is a hotel! You try to walk further along Mira Avenue, when you leave the hotel, go right three or four hundred meters, there was some kind of Russian Post office there, it seems..."
So in “Cosmos” or at “Russian Post”?
Of course, I didn’t rush to Russian Post: the SMS said in black and white that the parcel terminal was located on the hotel premises! Using a smartphone, I go to the InPost website, make sure once again that I haven’t confused anything and the parcel terminal is located in “Cosmos”. I call the service hotline to ask questions... No one picks up the phone...
I ask the hotel security guards, the ones who harass all the tourists at the entrance, where the parcel terminal is located. The two of them open their mouths and, becoming like “two of their caskets,” try to digest the information for a while, then almost say in unison: “There is no such thing here.”
I'm amazed. Security guards should definitely know about parcel lockers: after all, couriers must place parcels in them, carry some boxes - in any case, they must be checked, “examined” with special devices. Well, since even the guards say no, I’m returning home. No package.
The next day, a mocking SMS reminder arrives: they say, have you forgotten that the package is waiting for you? A couple of days later - another one: they didn’t wait, they say, when you pick up the parcel, so they returned it to the warehouse.
Support
I am writing a letter to the store support service. So they say and so - sort it out with your delivery partners. I couldn't find the parcel machine! They promised to clarify it and even draw a diagram on the website. Well, so that for subsequent customers, traveling through the hotel does not look like an impassable quest.
Meanwhile, I re-place the same order with the same delivery. For me, it’s already a sporting interest to find a parcel terminal. Moreover, everyone claims that it is not mythical. Having a little more time to search and the determination to reach out (if necessary) to the hotel management, I go for the order again.
The second time I start right away with a question to the guards (others already). Where, I say, is the parcel terminal?
- And what is it? – one of them answers the question with a question.
- Well, these are such terminals... Postal parcels are deposited there and you can pick them up...
- No, there’s nothing like that here... It’s a hotel! - the guard answers.
“I know it’s a hotel, it’s not stupid,” I answer. - Here I have it written...
– Doesn’t it say in which city? - “overshadows” the guard. – There are hotels named “Cosmos” in many cities! And the street called “Prospekt Mira” too. Maybe this is an incident and your package is in another city?
Where was he hidden?
There was no desire or sense to discuss, and before I finally gave up, I decided to play a quest, namely, try to find the mail terminal. I must say that I examined the ground floor completely - I went everywhere where there were no security guards (the formidable security guards were not allowed into the elevators and some rooms). I went into all the bars and even small shops - suddenly the parcel machine was hidden somewhere between the counters.
When the entire basement floor was examined, I went up to the “balcony” of the basement floor (there is such a thing in “Cosmos”). There are a number of restaurants, banking establishments, vending machines with contact lenses and chocolates and soda, everything - except the post office. With all this, I asked all the hotel employees (judging by their uniforms and badges) about the presence of a parcel terminal! And only one worker seemed to remember something. “There was a courier service here a few years ago for online orders, but it closed when the rent became too expensive,” he said. “So most likely you were late - your package has not been here for a long time.”
Stingy male tear
I was already ready to shed a stingy man’s tear and say goodbye to my order, when suddenly I had another “clue.” To the right of the main entrance to the hotel there is a staircase leading to the basement. In this very basement there is another restaurant and a fitness club with a swimming pool. I'm wondering if I should go down there? - but what if…
Two flights of stairs down and... what do I see?! Downstairs, not far from the spa and restaurant, there is a service entrance where hotel staff coming for duty enter, checking in in the logs on the security guard’s desk. Behind this same security guard are the treasured metal boxes with the InPost logo! How did the basement room, access to which is very difficult (you need to go through the main entrance and go down the stairs to the basement), turn into a “ground floor” in the description - miracles of PR, obviously...
Half the battle was done - the terminal was found.
Well very ancient
The parcel terminal itself turned out to be very ancient. We have long been accustomed to the fact that such terminals have a screen on which all the data for receiving the parcel is entered. There is no screen here. Solid boxes. Which side should you approach them from and how can you force the desired cell to open?
Frankly, you won’t immediately notice that at a distance of a meter from the parcel machine there is a terminal for accepting Qiwi payments. More precisely, I noticed the terminal immediately - but could not logically connect it and the parcel terminal into a single whole. As it turned out, InPost and Qiwi are one big gang. And the mail terminal, either due to the crooked hands of the creators, or for some other illogical reasons, is tied to the payment terminal. That is, “Qiwi” is connected to the parcel terminal.
On the screen of the payment terminal (!) I select “Receive parcel”, I am asked to pay for it and happily informed that the terminal does not give change and the money will be credited to the Qiwi wallet linked to the phone number. And if I don’t have one, they will create it. In other words, if you do not use Qiwi Wallet and do not want to create an online wallet, be prepared to be left without change. At all! This, you see, is not very pleasant. And the fact that you are forced to connect your wallet is not only unpleasant, but also violates Russian laws regarding the imposition of financial services. In general, an unpleasant aftertaste...
They were not released
I received the parcel - there were no problems with it. They didn’t let me out into the street through the service entrance of “Cosmos” - they sent me back to where I came in from, which meant I had to climb the stairs to the ground floor and make a detour to get out “to freedom”...
My impressions from communicating with InPost and from the fact that I was forced into a Qiwi wallet, which now contained twenty rubles in change, remained extremely negative. But I will not dissuade you from using parcel terminals - sometimes this is the only convenient option to receive a parcel. I just want to warn you - never make an advance payment when ordering through parcel machines - otherwise (if you don’t find a terminal) you won’t be able to get your money back! Pay only on the spot (if you find a terminal) and, ideally, having prepared money in advance “down to the penny” - so that you are not forced to replenish the Qiwi user base and are not “uploaded” for any more services.
inpost.ru
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Creating a network of parcel terminals where buyers of books, boots and sex toys can pick up their goods looks like a good business idea. But without enlisting the support of a large logistics operator, you shouldn’t undertake this.
Over five years of operation, PickPoint (in the photo - company director Nadezhda Romanova) managed to create the country's largest network of parcel terminals (Photo: Oleg Yakovlev / RBC)
How did they come up with
The idea of creating a network of parcel terminals in Russia - automated points for issuing orders - was visited by the commercial director of the SPSR Express company, Nadezhda Romanova, at the Post Expo 2009 exhibition in Hannover, where she saw terminals for issuing parcels developed by KEBA for Deutsche Post. In June 2010, Network of Automated Pickup Points LLC was established, which began operating under the PickPoint brand. “The technology interested us because automatic equipment has better productivity and cost than classic pick-up points,” recalls the head of PickPoint, Nadezhda Romanova, who left SPSR Express.
Investments in PickPoint amounted to $10 million. They were invested by SPSR Express shareholders - venture funds and several private investors. “The company was immediately created as a separate business project,” says Romanova. According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Network of Automated Pickup Points LLC is now 100% owned by the Cypriot PickPoint Delivery Sistem Ltd. Among its co-owners there is only one individual - Oleg Tsarkov, managing partner of Svarog Capital Advisors, who has 15%. ABOUT n refused to communicate with RBC for this article. Other co-owners are companies registered in the British Virgin Islands; their beneficiaries are unknown. The largest co-owner of PickPoint Delivery Sistem with a share of 43% is Festina Trading Ltd, aka largest co-owner of SPSR Express with a share of 40%.
In 2010, the fast-growing online retail market lacked companies that focused on delivering purchases to individuals. “At that time, many online stores created their own courier services - it was a necessary measure,” recalls Romanova. But, according to her, courier delivery has several disadvantages: firstly, the need to negotiate with the client about the delivery time, which cannot always be done promptly, which means the deadlines are delayed. Secondly, in large cities it is very difficult to ensure that the courier arrives on time. “As a result, the quality of the service suffers, and the cost of the service itself increases,” explains Romanova.
The founders of PickPoint were also not interested in opening their own network of pick-up points (POPs): someone there has to work 12-14 hours a day, while parcels are most actively picked up, as a rule, in the morning and evening. “The cost of issuing an order through a parcel locker is 30-50% lower than through a pick-up point,” says Romanova. “In Russia, unskilled labor is paid very modestly, so the economics of a pick-up point can be no less profitable than the economics of a parcel terminal due to the rather high cost of automated terminals,” retorts Tatyana Yampolskaya, general director of the Hermes express delivery company.
Pickpoint in numbers
1455 pick-up points in the PickPoint network
More 3 million items were delivered via PickPoint in 2015
2.2 million people — number of unique PickPoint users
3.4 thousand rubles.— average cost of an order delivered via PickPoint
1.2 kg— average weight of one parcel
120 cells— the size of an average parcel terminal in Moscow, 80 cells in other regions
40 thousand items per day were delivered via PickPoint in December 2015
Source: company data
PickPoint offered three global manufacturers parcel lockers — Austrian KEBA, Polish InPost and Estonian Smart Post (now Cleveron) to finalize their models in order to enter the Russian market. “European terminals did not have the payment options we needed, since orders there prepay , whereas in Russia they like to pay upon receipt, mostly in cash,” says Romanova. “In addition, the standard height of cells in the EU is 8 cm, but our parcels are higher in height - 10-15 cm.” The Estonians became interested in the project: they provided parcel lockers with the ability to pay with plastic cards, the software for them was written in Russia. 115 were purchased in Estonia parcel lockers , then their production was established in Russia.
How we launched
At the time of the opening of the first terminal on November 29, 2010 in Moscow City, PickPoint had signed about 40 agreements with online stores. The largest of them were the cosmetics manufacturer Yves Rocher, which already worked with SPRS Express and delivered orders through parcel terminals in its native France, as well as the online clothing store Wildberries. Currently, delivery through PickPoint is actively used by over 2 thousand companies, including Otto Group, LaModa, Oriflame and Ozon. At the start, as Romanova recalls, there were, of course, problems: a young company offering a delivery method previously unknown to the client. But gradually all the largest Russian online stores and even foreign ones that send goods to Russia began to use parcel machines (Chinese Ali Express and JD.com accounted for 6% of PickPoint’s orders in 2015).
For sex shops, delivery through parcel terminals has become a revolution. “Many of our clients are embarrassed to choose courier delivery or go into a retail store,” says Yulia Atroshchenko, senior manager of the He and She chain of intimate goods stores, which has been cooperating with PickPoint for four years.
However, parcel terminals also have disadvantages: they do not allow you to hold the goods in your hands before buying. “This delivery method does not involve a fitting service before purchase, which means it cannot be the only one for the fashion segment in e-commerce,” Lamoda managing director Florian Jansen told RBC. Despite this, 38% of parcels delivered through PickPoint in 2015 were clothing and footwear.
It was much more difficult to persuade landlords than sellers, recalls Romanova. At first, shopping centers were suspicious of parcel terminals and did not want to rent out space for them, although the standard parcel locker for 80 cells it occupies only 4 square meters. m . “Many even viewed us as a threat to traffic: they say, why would people buy on the Internet and not in a shopping center?” - says Romanova. It wasn't until 2013, when the technology became popular, that shopping centers saw parcel lockers competitive advantage. "They realized that parcel lockers can work as a payment terminal and generate new customers,” says Romanova ( parcel locker accepts payments not only for parcels, but also for cellular communications, etc.). True, now the shopping center is not the main lessor for PickPoint: about 65% parcel lockers installed in supermarkets. “We are more interested in stores where a person goes to buy bread, milk and at the same time picks up his parcel - a place that is on the way home,” explains Romanova. According to her, the busiest parcel lockers are located in residential areas.
How does it workPickPoint
Connecting a small online store to PickPoint is quite simple: you need to conclude an agreement and embed a shopping cart module on the site, which takes an average of 1.5-2 hours of programmer work. When placing an order, the buyer selects a convenient parcel locker or a partner delivery point for orders. Every evening, with the help of partner courier services, PickPoint picks up all its orders from the online store and brings them to the sorting center on Volgogradsky Prospekt, where 50 of the company’s 120 employees work. At night, shipments are sorted by direction and either transferred for mainline delivery, or with the help of partner courier services, early in the morning they are delivered to post offices and order pick-up points in Moscow and the Moscow region.
At the time of loading into the parcel locker or delivery to the point of delivery, the consumer is sent an SMS, email or push notification that his order has been delivered, and is also informed of the storage period, operating hours of the point, amount to pay, etc. Delivery times vary: in Moscow and the Moscow region The goods are placed in the parcel locker, as a rule, the next day after dispatch from the store; in other regions this period is from three days. The goods are stored on average for three days, however, if the client did not have time to pick up the order, the parcel machine can extend the storage period at the point or redirect it to another point.
In addition, it turned out that customers who receive parcels at pick-up points and at terminals are different target audiences: the former are older, more conservative and do not always trust technology, while the latter are younger, more mobile and do not want to waste time on unnecessary communication. PickPoint decided to cooperate with independent networks of pick-up points (Maxima Express, Boxberry) and Rostelecom, giving connected online stores the opportunity to deliver goods not only to parcel terminals, but also to pick-up points. At the end of 2015, there were already 715 such partner pickup points, and 740 parcel terminals.
In 2015, PickPoint delivered more than 3 million items (an increase of 1.66 times compared to 2014). The company does not disclose financial indicators. “We reached payback in the fall of 2014,” explains Romanova. Several online stores in Moscow cooperating with PickPoint stated that the basic tariff for delivery to a post office in the capital is 236 rubles for a client, and to the regions it is more expensive, depending on the weight and distance. If all 3 million items were delivered to PickPoint in Moscow, the company’s revenue would have been at least 700 million rubles. excluding services for picking up goods and accepting payments. The company's revenue in 2015 is close to 1 billion rubles, its press service confirmed to RBC.
Don't try this again
Over five years of operation, PickPoint managed to create the country's largest network of parcel terminals. According to J’son & Partners, PickPoint holds approximately 50-60% of the parcel terminal market in Russia. “PickPoint’s leadership in the market is explained by the fact that the shareholders of SPSR Express, the largest express delivery service in Russia, invested in the project,” says J’son & Partners expert Evgeny Itsakov. “In fact, PickPoint grew on the basis of the SPSR network: the company did not become a leader, it immediately had a leadership position and has maintained it to this day.”
Soon after PickPoint, the InPost networks (a joint venture between Qiwi and the Polish InPost), as well as Logibox, entered the market in Russia, but none of them reached O better success. According to several market participants, the Logibox network is struggling. An RBC correspondent was convinced that its website was not loading and its phones were not working. InPost opened 380 points (as of June 2015, the second largest network, after PickPoint). InPost CEO Andrey Chechin explains that it is impossible to launch a project in the parcel terminal market without very close partnerships with logistics companies. InPost works with SDEK, DPD, Pony Express. “We need integration of logistics processes and information systems, and this is a costly, time-consuming matter and requires resources to maintain,” warns Chechin.
“Our colleagues faced the same problems as we did, relying on partners, and were also unable to solve the main problem - effective mainline delivery,” explains Romanova. About 70% of mainline delivery for PickPoint is carried out by SPSR Express (at market rates, Romanova emphasizes).
The prospects for the use of parcel terminals are associated not only with the growth of the Russian online trading market (which has slowed down greatly due to the crisis), but also with the introduction of the ability for ordinary citizens to send parcels through them. Romanova says that PickPoint has technically been able to accept parcels from individuals for a long time in favor of other individuals, but it all comes down to client identification. “Otherwise drug trafficking will go through the network, and we don’t need that,” she explains. A clear and simple technology for client identification has not yet been invented in Russia, and the method that Logibox implemented in collaboration with Russian Post did not work. “They offered clients to issue a special bank card for using post offices to send parcels - this is very difficult,” says Romanova. Parcel machines can become an alternative to Russian Post for sending parcels from one private person to another, says Alexey Fedorov, president of the Association of Internet Trade Companies. InPost is already thinking about launching such a service in Russia, said its head Chechin.
Unhappy together
PickPoint developed networks of parcel terminals in Moscow and cities with a population of over a million, and gave regional capitals and smaller cities to partners who worked with PickPoint under an agency agreement. At the beginning of 2013, the company, which at that time had 440 parcel terminals, made plans to deliver 6.5 thousand terminals. But it didn’t work out: “It turned out that there are not so many places and such partners in the regions,” explains Nadezhda Romanova. Of the 740 parcel terminals, 210 belong to PickPoint partners. “This is a business for the lazy: agents buy equipment, sign a lease, install a parcel locker, connect it to the Internet and electricity, and largely forget about it,” says Romanova. “Then we connect them to a single network, carry out all logistics processes, carry out all payment acceptance through our module and pay the agent for issuing the order.”
Romanova refused to disclose the financial terms of the partnership, but RBC found a 2013 presentation that tells potential agents about the terms of cooperation. The cost of a parcel locker with 58 cells in the document is estimated at 600 thousand rubles., and the agent’s remuneration is in 65 rub. for the delivery of each item. The company claims that the current payback occurs in 3-6 months, and the return on investment is within two years.
But, according to Romanova, the bet on agents did not pay off: many of them did not study the traffic of places for installing terminals well, and spent a long time looking for suitable premises: “There were cases that it took 4-5 months from the sale of the terminal to the start of its operation.” The agent with whom RBC spoke is also dissatisfied: “An unprofitable business: sometimes the commission does not cover rental costs,” complains Andrey Mershiev from Novorossiysk, who became a PickPoint partner in early 2014. “It’s easier to put money on deposit in a bank.”
