As part of the continuing expansion of its pick-up/drop-off offering, Valora is teaming up with the international parcel service UPS. In several hundred k kiosk and Press & Books sales outlets in Switzerland, customers will be able to ship and receive parcels via UPS. Parcels can be dropped off or picked up not only during the day, but also in the evening or on Sundays.
With UPS Access PointTM, an innovative parcel pick-up/drop-off solution, Valora is once again positioning itself at the interface between the analogue and digital worlds and utilising its dense network of sales outlets at highly frequented locations with long opening hours in the evenings and on Sundays. Valora has been offering this service at selected sales outlets since this week and will now extend it step-by-step to several hundred k kiosk and Press & Books sales outlets in Switzerland.
Prepare UPS deliveries digitally at home
UPS customers or any ad-hoc shipper can now prepare national and international parcel deliveries and pay for them conveniently via the UPS website or app. With the received code, the customers can drop off the parcel at the k kiosk or Press & Books sales outlet. This solution for direct processing at cash registers was developed with the company smarts.
UPS Access PointTM locations also function as alternative delivery locations. People who are not at home to receive a delivery can pick up their UPS parcel conveniently also from k kiosk or Press & Books sales outlets nearby which are now part of the international UPS Access PointTM network.
Transforming stationary retail outlets into service centres
With the UPS parcel services, Valora is expanding its pick-up/drop-off offering at retail outlets. In Switzerland, this already includes Swisscom easy point, a service which enables Swisscom customers to pick up hardware or a SIM card at a k kiosk, Press & Books or avec sales outlet after having taken out a subscription online or to exchange defective equipment in 15 minutes. Further elements of the offering are Päckli Punkt, where parcels from affiliated distribution partners can be returned and in some cases also picked up, and the 13 agencies of the Swiss Post that Valora operates.
Over recent years, Valora has steadily expanded the range of services on offer at its retail outlets, such as pick-up/drop-off, renting out umbrellas and Chimpy power banks charged with solar electricity, the sale of FlixBus tickets, offline payment options for online purchases and cash withdrawals via the Sonect app (and also via TWINT). As a result, the outlets are increasingly acting as service centres.