Sarj Patel
Pasture Lane Stores, Sutton Bonington, Nottinghamshire
“We’ve had Evri for around eight years now. We were one of the first stores to sign up with them. It’s been up and down with them, it was a nightmare before but Evri have gotten their act together now and we get a lot of people using it. The service still isn’t brilliant, but we get customers coming back because it’s the cheapest way to send parcels.
“The commission from Evri isn’t that great, unfortunately, but our footfall has increased massively because we have it. People will come in and say ‘while I’m here, I might as well get some milk or a comic book or some sweets,’ especially if they come in with kids. I would say that seven or eight out of 10 people who come in to deliver or collect a parcel will buy something as well.
“You get a few that don’t. It’s best to keep it all in the front of the store and if you have any issues with them, you’ve got to get onto them sharpish.”
Ranj Hayer
Hayers Meadvale, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset
“One of our stores works with Evri and parcel collection. It’s freely available now and with the multiples opening longer hours, you’ve got to give yourself a USP.
“We also offer home delivery as well which stemmed from Covid. That’s continued nicely ever since. With our home delivery we’re delivering within 20 minutes even at peak time.
“Evri is very easy. It’s just a matter of a phonecall to get set up, and there are loads of other ones like DPD out there as well. The world is a parcel world now, people order everything online and will often ask for it to be delivered to a shop because they’re away at work. There’s a huge opportunity out there because people don’t want parcels sitting outside their front door.
“It’s not fantastic for incremental sales for us, but it’s down to every retailer to display their store right once they’ve got a customers through the door, and it definitely does that.”
Sue Nithyanandan
Costcutter Epsom, Surrey
“We offer Paypoint and the Evri parcel collection. Through looking at our Google searches I’ve found that people have come from far away to our store to collect and deliver parcels with us.
“We have the machine and it’s set up in its own corner right away from the till so people can go there, take their time and do things in a no-fuss environment. And if someone is really struggling then our staff have headsets and they can alert someone on the floor who can come and help them through.
“We’ve often found that once a person comes to our store for the Evri service, they know we’re here and will come back to get a big trolley full of stuff.
“It is a hassle and you don’t get much money from it – and they’re paying less and less – and some stores don’t have room, but it’s another way of creating footfall. After all, who hasn’t got an Amazon account these days?”
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