Harvey Norman now offering three hour delivery to customers in major capital cities
Article by Matthew Dunn, news.com.au, @mattydunn11
Source: View Original Article
RETAIL giant Harvey Norman has teamed up with Aussie logistics start-up Shippit to solve the anxiety faced by online shoppers waiting for their product to be delivered.
Enabled by Shippit’s proprietary technology and smarts, which connects online retailers to traditional courier companies, Harvey Norman is now the first major retailer to offer a three-hour delivery option in major cities across the nation.
Available for small appliances, consumer electronics and small goods, the partnership allows customers to select a three-hour delivery window between 7am-10pm weekdays.
The delivery option has been integrated into the payment screen and costs are determined by the time of the day customers would like their products to arrive.
Taking things one step further, customers can track their parcel online in real time through SMS and email alerts and have the option to reschedule or reroute the delivery after the purchase has been made.
Harvey Norman chief digital officer Gary Wheelhouse said the partnership was all about giving the customers a better online shopping experience.
“Click and collect made it easier for customers to buy online and then come in store to pick up the product, but we still saw delivery as one of our major challenges,” he told news.com.au
“Customers would often have to wait for the next business day to receive their goods and that just wasn’t convenient.”
THE SELECTION IS MADE AT THE DELIVERY PAYMENT SCREEN.SOURCE:SUPPLIED
“I hate doing tech things just for the sake of using the tech, but Shippit’s technology just makes sense and the integration has been ideal,” he said.
“At the moment we only offer the service in capital cities, but if we see demands we will expand to our other stores across the country,”
Joint-chief executive of Shippit Rob Hango-Zada said his company was excited to help solve an issue for one of Australia’s largest and longest standing retailers.
“We worked with the retail giant to co-develop a ship-from-store dispatch process that literally strips hours of wasted time from the whole shipping process for store staff,” he said.
Mr Hango-Zada said the company got a kick out helping provide a better end-to-end customer experience.
“We just wanted to keep customers in the loop and remove the dreaded feeling of receiving the ‘Sorry We Missed You’ calling card left in the mail,” he said.Mr Wheelhouse said the option was now available to customers to use.