Yamato Transport Co. will launch a service in November allowing consumers to receive goods they order online at drugstores, supermarkets and other shops, as a way to reduce repeat delivery visits for recipients who are not at home, it has been learned.
The company also plans to distribute coupons that can be used at the outlets where consumers receive their ordered goods, in an effort to encourage them to pick up goods there.
When ordering, customers can choose a store cooperating with the new service, and then receive their goods by showing an emailed QR code at the store during its opening hours.
The company will launch the service on the Zozotown online shopping site for apparel and other online malls, and gradually expand its partnered online retailers.
Yamato will start accept applications for cooperating outlets as early as this month and plans to have 10,000 such outlets in the near future. In addition to reducing the number of redeliveries, Yamato can reduce its manpower and transportation expenses by delivering packages to stores in bulk, rather than delivering to each household.
Yamato will in turn pay commissions to the stores, which could see additional sales during the pickup visits, including from consumers taking advantage of the store coupons they receive. While convenience stores are already widely used for third-party deliveries, Yamato's new service will offer an even wider variety of pickup points.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak and requests to avoid going out, consumers are making more online purchases than ever before, increasing the demand for parcel deliveries to homes.
Yamato Transport handled about 680 million parcels between April and July, an increase of 14.4% over the same period last year.
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