Tradition taps into demand created by e-commerce businesses, the flexible working day and innovation from its competition to offer customers a solid solution to delivery headaches with simple, reliable PO box service.

Emirates Post has thrown its weight behind solving the last mile challenge for e-commerce companies, as it taps into the growing sector with a new service aimed at consumers who are without PO boxes.

The group will use its UAE-wide network of post offices to provide common PO box addresses tied to a single location that can be used by anyone as a pick-up point. Each post office has its own PO box number, which can be provided to retailers when making transactions online. Items can be picked up at the registered mail counters in post offices by providing valid identification.

According to Emirates Post, a charge will be applied at the point of collection, based on the size and weight of each item.

“We believe it brings great value addition to e-commerce as a cost-effective last mile delivery option for those buying products online,” said Emirates Post’s acting chief commercial officer, Obaid Al Qatami. “As we have a large network of post offices spread across the UAE, we are in a strong position to cater to the needs of a segment of population that does not own individual PO boxes.”

The last mile is a phrase used in the logistics and transport sectors to describe the final part of a network delivering services to retail end-users. As e-commerce grows, completing this final leg efficiently becomes more challenging as consumers are typically not at home when deliveries are usually made. Companies such as Aramex, Amazon and Alibaba have trialled different methods to help solve this problem, including deploying drones, setting up collection lockers and utilising cloud-based security technology to gain temporary access to customers’ premises when they are away.

According to on-demand delivery app fetchr, there has been an increase in interest from investors and retailers in efforts to make the delivery of goods as easy as online shopping has now become in the region. Fetchr, which operates in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, received a new round of funding, raising US$41 million from leading investors including New Enterprise Associates, Beco Capital and Majid Al Futtaim Holding, it said on Tuesday.

Scott Sandell, the managing general partner at New Enterprise Associates and fetchr board member, said that the company has grown quickly since it first invested in two years ago.

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