Evri is to cut the weekly volume bonus paid to retailers from 6 April, potentially costing shops with high Evri parcel volumes hundreds of pounds in payments each year.

The move has been revealed in a letter sent out to Evri’s network of retailers, according to the Fed. The Fed’s national president and Blantyre retailer Mo Razzaq said that he will lose “several hundreds of pounds in bonus payments over a year” as a result. Razzaq’s average payment of £23 per week is now set be reduced to £17. This is equal to a reduction of £312 each year.

Shops processing between 251 and 350 parcel transactions per week will receive a combined weekly volume bonus of £12, with those processing 351-450 receiving £17 in total, and £22 for stores seeing between 451 and 550 parcels.

The highest available bonus will be set at £53 per week for stores with over 951 Evri transactions each week.

He said: “In a letter advising of the change, Evri celebrates the continual growth of shopping online in the UK, adding that more and more customers are choosing to use ParcelShops to send, collect and return parcels.

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“[The letter] goes on to add that parcel volumes have grown by tens of millions across its ParcelShop network, driving additional footfall and revenue benefits to retailers.  And it expects this trend to continue. Evri then describes ParcelShops as ‘the heart of its business’ and ‘important to our customers’ and states that it wants to share that growth with us. Yet in the very next sentence, it advises of a “small change to the weekly volume bonus, which will take effect from next month,” Razzaq continued.

An Evri spokesperson told Better Retailing: “This change only impacts the weekly volume bonus, which is paid only when a shop reaches an agreed parcel volume figure, and we’re pleased to continue to offer a bonus, on top of standard ‘per parcel’ rates. The changes have been implemented to allow us to remain competitive across the industry. There have been no changes to our standard parcel rates.

“We anticipate growth in ParcelShop volumes this year, and overall earning potential for shops should also increase as we meet these targets. Volume bonus on average only accounts for a minority of Parcelshop earnings, with the majority being driven from parcel rate, where we have made no change. In line with our contractual obligations, we have written to those ParcelShops affected to allow them 30 days notice of any changes,” they continued.

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Evri losses will differ between shops

Because the bonuses are tied to the volume of parcels a shop processes, the change in payment will differ between stores. Maqsood Akhtar, of Blackthorn News & Food in Rotherham, said he wasn’t yet sure what the monetary impact of the cuts would be. He added: “The payments are hugely volume-incentivised, so obviously the shops that are really big with Evri services will get hit, while smaller parcel volume shops won’t be affected as much.”

Akhtar added that volume payments have previously been divided into tranches. He explained: “the first 300 parcels in volume, then it goes up again above 300, but we’ll have to see the amount they give now.”

“I got an email the other day and also heard via social media. They’ve changed it a little bit but what can you do? Until we boycott like we tried to do a few years ago, not every shop is going to gather together, so until people properly stand up, Evri will continue to do this,” Akhtar continued.

One Worcestershire-based Evri retailer, who hadn’t received the letter about bonus payments, said of a potential cut to payments: “It wouldn’t surprise me. They keep giving us more work and paying less, but it’s a catch-22 for retailers as it brings people into the shop.”

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