Sit in front of the laptop, enter through a click the catalog of the fashion store you want, select that article you like so much, choose the size, pay for the product and then comes the big decision: where to send What if I won’t be home to pick it up at the time indicated? The solution, more and more often, is to be found at the heart of local commerce, businesses that are finding in the movement of packages a secondary avenue of income and advertising in times of inflation. It doesn’t matter if it’s a florist, a tobacconist or a stationery store, the reality is that this service offered in Spain by companies like InPost is increasingly gaining strength in neighborhood shops in practically all Spanish cities, which act as a point pack within the “delivery to non-home address”.
The store, after all, becomes a space for receiving packages that arrive, for example, after an online purchase if – as is the case with InPost – an agreement is reached with the main fashion and retail companies to to be able to leave your orders. However, it also acts as an exit point for shipments between individuals or for a return to a trade through a simple mechanism. As Pilar Ibáñez, owner of Perfumarte Maria Cristina – a store located in the center of Valencia and an Inpost pack point – explains: “After printing an identification label, customers leave their packages with us and, after receiving them with a PDA, we put them in a bag. When the cast arrives, we give them to take to the rest of the cities.” Within 48 hours at the most, this product is already in the hands of the recipient.
On any given day, this parcel receiving process can reach 25 or 30 items. However, as Ibáñez points out, the number “in times like Black Friday can grow to 50 or 60 packages”. It is a high volume of movement that Víctor Sierra, manager of another Valencian store specializing in home goods such as Mas Masiá, also experiences for more than a decade. “In the last month, between deliveries and shipments, we can get out approximately 1,000 packages”, he emphasizes. Throughout Spain, the director of InPost’s Red Punto Pack and Lockers, Julio Suero, assures that more than 100,000 packages are moved daily by the company between the 4,500 points (stores) that it has distributed throughout all the Spanish provinces.
D’occasional to shot
Not surprisingly, the boom that digital commerce has experienced in recent years is key for this service to take off. According to the latest quarterly data (from April to June 2022) released in January by the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), e-commerce in the country already reached 18,190 million euros in sales , 33% more than the previous year. Data on the rise to which is also added the rise of platforms such as Vinted, with which you can buy and sell fashion items directly between individuals who do not necessarily have to be in the same city. With this scenario, sending packets has been unable to do anything but upload. “In the beginning it was occasional, but over the years the delivery is skyrocketing”, points out Sierra.
But beyond the convenience for the user – who, as Suero acknowledges, has at his disposal “a cheaper and more sustainable service” by picking up all the packages in the same place – non-domicile has advantages above all for the shops that act as point pack. The first is directly economic, because, as the owner of Perfumarte points out, for “each package delivered they pay 30 cents, and for receipts, 15”. In a month he can withdraw “200 or 300 euros”, which in times of inflation, rising prices of raw materials, energy and after the covid-19 pandemic, are used to face some expenses. “To pay for electricity or water is fine”, says Ibáñez. “It’s an aid that ends up going to general expenses,” agrees Sierra.
However, the main advantage for these businesses, the two owners emphasize, comes indirectly. “What interests me – says Ibáñez – is that the person who comes to look for a package is a person who lives in the area and in the end is a potential customer to whom I always offer a perfume”. And with this tactic, he says that “they always end up coming” again, and with this they gain “maybe around 10 or 15 customers a week”.
Advertising for stores
“What brings us the most is that many people from the postcode, from the neighborhood, who did not know the trade, when they come to look for the packages, end up knowing that this establishment exists”, agrees the owner of Mas Masiá, who summarizes that the most the important thing is that “bring this little advertisement to the store”. The package industry, after all, becomes a clear boost for local commerce.