After a decade building a leading distribution network, the John Lewis Partnership has announced it is trialling new commercial opportunities and the acquisition of new customers by providing access to its Click & Collect distribution network to third party retailers.
This starts with a trial in collaboration with Boden, with the potential to expand to more brands. From today, Boden customers will be able to use the John Lewis & Partners Click & Collect service to pick up their parcels from 30 Waitrose & Partners stores. Boden orders placed by 7pm will be available for Click & Collect by the end of the next working day.
Click & Collect, which launched in 2008, is a significant success story for the Partnership, offering customers a seamless online and physical retail service through Waitrose and John Lewis. In the last five years alone, Click & Collect orders have increased more than 50% as customers enjoy the ease and convenience it provides. Currently 57% of all online orders are delivered through this service with 25% of packages collected at John Lewis shops and 75% at Waitrose shops.
By opening up Click & Collect to those customers who shop with other retailers, the Partnership is introducing new customers to the Partnership’s range of unique products and personalised customer service.
Bérangère Michel, Partner and Operations Director, John Lewis & Partners, said: “We were one of the first to launch a Click & Collect service at scale in the UK and we’re pleased that the service will now be used by other businesses. This is a great example of how we are combining the capabilities of John Lewis and Waitrose to deliver what retail needs, at a time when the sector is changing at an extraordinary pace.”
Gav Thompson, Chief Customer Officer at Boden, said: “We are so excited to be able to offer our customers Click & Collect at select Waitrose shops in time for Christmas. This is a new way of shopping Boden and the perfect collaboration, designed around convenience and ease.”
This is a continuation of the innovation in fulfillment made by the John Lewis Partnership in the last two years. John Lewis has introduced Click & Collect services to Booths and Co-op shops, offering customers the chance to collect John Lewis products in new locations. John Lewis also recently launched a service which allows customers to return John Lewis items at the same time that their Waitrose food order is delivered.