Amazon partners with Co-op for collection lockers

Amazon has partnered with Co-operative Food to install collection-lockers in some of its stores.

Last September the internet retailer began installing lockers in some London shopping centres owned by Land Securities. The move means items customers order from Amazon can be left in a locker convenient to them, as opposed to having their orders delivered to their homes or workplaces.

Lockers have been installed in four Co-op stores in Greater London—Chelsea, Parsons Green, New Malden and Edenbridge–as well as two further shops in Stockport and Alderley Edge.

Bryan Roberts, retail insights director at Kantar Retail, said in a blog about the lockers: “I popped along to the Co-op store in Chelsea to take a look, discovering a set-up that does actually make a degree of sense . . . The Lockers are sited on the wall opposite the entrance, directly adjacent to an ATM and the checkouts, placing them in an ideally convenient spot for individuals wishing to complete a top-up shop at the same time as picking up their Pingu DVDs or copy of Infinite Jest."

He added: “It remains to be seen if this six-strong pilot with the Co-op moves beyond the current phase and into anything like a national partnership, but the initiative is an encouraging sign of Amazon’s acknowledgement that a physical manifestation will be of long-term benefit. For the Co-op, the lockers are a much needed extra reason for shoppers to go to the retailer’s stores.”

A spokesman for Amazon said: “We focus on customers and the benefit for customers is that they have a convenient alternative to home delivery.”

Source : Lisa Campbell – The Bookseller
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