Click & Drop from The Royal Mail
As businesses continue to adjust the way they operate, different sectors have had unique hurdles that they have had to overcome.
For some, that has involved switching to cloud accountancy services, team and project management software, for all of us, video conferencing has become a part of daily life.
Many small businesses in the retail sector have shifted their focus to online trading so that they can continue to serve their customers safely. Of course they need an e-commerce website in order to do this but that’s just the start. Safely packing and delivering products, cost and time-effectively is just as important.
If you are regularly sending out products to customers, bought through your online store, Royal Mail’s ‘Click & Drop’ might be a system for you!
The system is integrated with your website and allows you to print off postage stickers from your home, rather than having to manually generate address stickers and pop down to the Post Office for them to create the postage. A win, win!
We caught up with our friends at Inverness Coffee Roasting Company and asked them a few questions about Click & Drop. We recently helped them move to this new way of managing their deliveries and wanted to find out how much of a difference the system has made to their business since.
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1. What made you decide to make the move to ‘Click & Drop’?
When lockdown hit our online sales skyrocketed. Up till then we’d been using the Royal Mail’s personal Click & Drop which involved printing off individual labels on ordinary A4 printer paper, cutting out the labels then sticking them on the envelopes with Sellotape. This was fine when we were posting 5 or 6 items a day – not so much when we had 50. That’s the long answer.
The short answer: the desire for sticky labels
Quicker accounting procedures: the personal Click and Drop involved reconciling each individual postage payment on our accounts system. The Business one means we just pay once per month by Direct Debit
The short answer: time & money saved
We discovered there were discounts available for average weight contracts. We were able to pass this saving onto our customers by offering a flat rate postage. This meant people were not restricting the coffee they bought because of postage cost concerns.
Short answer: a better deal for our lovely customers
2. How did you find the process for getting ‘Click and Drop’ set up? Was there anything that cropped up that you hadn’t expected?
On the contrary – I had expected some down time/loss of business while we changed systems, but the Royal Mail account handler was so helpful and available for any queries that this didn’t happen. Similarly, the local Royal Mail team at the Inverness depot have been so helpful and flexible through what has been a hugely difficult time for them.
Also I thought the process of integrating Royal Mail’s system with our own web site would be complicated but Yellow Cherry did all that for us, so it wasn’t an issue. I loved working with all the Yellow Cherry team members who were there for us consistently during a tense time (as they always are). They shared their know-how graciously without making us feel silly for asking simple questions. All deadlines were met, and they were flexible and patient when our own milestone timings had to shift with business demands.
3. What difference have you seen with using ‘Click & Drop’ compared to your previous delivery system?
Time savings but also flexibility e.g. if we make a mistake on a postage item we can rectify it ourselves without having to send away for a refund.
4. How has ‘Click & Drop’ helped increase your online sales?
Time efficiencies and customer benefits have allowed us to deliver extra services to existing customers and engage with new customers.
Lockdown required us to change our business model in a short space of time. With Yellow Cherry’s digital expertise we have expanded our website to offer equipment, gadgets, spares and loose-leafed teas as well an expanded coffee bean menu. Click & Drop has allowed us to service all these additional online orders even with a restricted staff. Any orders reaching us by 3pm Monday to Friday always get sent out by first class post the same day.
5. What recommendations would you give to a business owner who is considering ‘Click & Drop’?
Go for it!
If you are looking to move your retail shop online but you’re not sure where to start, contact us and we can help you get started. Equally, get in touch if you are looking to integrate ‘Click & Drop’ into your e-commerce website, we would be happy to help!