UK toy seller The Entertainer has signed up Doddle to support its click and collect offering over peak season.
Online customers will be able to collect and return parcels from 500 Doddle locations across the UK, open between 7am and 10pm. These include hundreds of Debenhams and Morrisons stores.
The option is available alongside the existing ability to have parcels delivered directly to a home address and to collect or return parcels from the brand’s high street or shopping centre locations. Customers can also collect parcels from myHermes locations.
The announcement comes just over a week before Black Friday and the beginning of the peak shopping season, during which 60% of The Entertainer’s total annual purchases take place.
Rob Wood, Head of Online at The Entertainer commented: “Buying toys is always more than a functional experience. It’s associated with excitement and fun, so we pride ourselves on doing everything we can to make it an enjoyable journey each and every time.
“Partnering with Doddle was a natural choice for us. Their focus on customer service fits well with our ethos and their rapidly growing network gives our customers the choice of collection and return points across the country, all with long hours, that work brilliantly for busy mums, dads and grandparents.’
Mike Richmond, chief commercial officer for Doddle, said: “By partnering with the UK’s best loved brands we enable customers to pick up the things they want, when they want, from great locations across the UK, that fit around their lifestyles.”
Doddle works with a number of other retailers including Amazon, ASOS, New Look, Wiggle and Missguided.
According to a survey of over 2000 UK adults by ParcelLab, 34% of respondents cited deliveries as a key problem during the peak season, with 56% saying delivery takes at least one day longer at Christmas. Late delivery was cited as an issue by 28% of the survey’s respondents.
