Amazon to pilot tube station car park shopping lockers

Amazon has confirmed plans to trial online shopping pick-up lockers in London Underground car parks this month, joining a string of rivals already using the tube network.

Under the proposals, lockers will be located in the car parks at Finchley Central and Newbury Park, joining nearly 300 locations around the UK where Amazon offers the service.

London Underground also tested click and collect points for supermarket Asda in six station car parks last year and is working with Tesco, Waitrose and parcel locker company Inpost to offer services at several more stations.

Britons' enthusiasm for click and collect services has also seen Network Rail set up a joint venture with Travelex founder Lloyd Dorfman to invest £24m in 300 Doddle pick-up-points at stations.

It is believed that more than half of British shoppers have used a click and collect service at some point, with most major retailers now offering the option to pick up goods ordered online in their store or another convenient location, rather than wait in at home. Even the supermarkets are using refrigerated trucks to enable shoppers to pick up groceries from their car parks.

Amazon has also put collection lockers in stores including Co-op outlets, as its rival eBay teams up with Argos. Meanwhile retailers including John Lewis are working with Collect+, a scheme that allows shoppers to pick up and return items bought online at more than 5,000 independent retailers.

The commercial development director at Transport for London, Graeme Craig, said: "Our click and collect partnerships have been extremely successful and we look forward to bringing more of the services our customers want to our network."

He said the partnership with Amazon was part of a wider commercial strategy that is aiming to generate £3.5bn over the coming years via pop-up shops, click and collect services and new retailing ideas.

Sarah Butler - theguardian.com, Wednesday 25 June 2014 16.29 BST
www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/25/amazon-trial-pick-up-lockers-tube-car-parks