The Post Office has announced the launch of its Drop & Go summer parcel discount.

It offers small business customers and online sellers in the luxury goods sector up to 50 per cent off their Medium parcels when they use the free, fast-track Drop and Go service, available at more than 11,000 branches across the UK.

The Drop & Go sale offers small businesses and online sellers the opportunity to send Royal Mail Medium Parcels (up to 2kg) for the price of a Royal Mail Small Parcel.

In addition, Post Office is offering its Drop & Go customers 25 per cent off Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm, when sending parcels between 1-2kg.

The sale starts 30th June and will last until 27th July. The offer is available to existing Drop & Go customers and new customers who sign up during the offer period.

Customers using Drop & Go simply hand over their mail at a fast-drop counter at their local participating Post Office. The branch will quickly check a few things before the customer leaves. The branch then processes their mail, taking the payment from the customer's prepaid Drop & Go card.

The free-to-join Drop & Go service aims to save small businesses, and regular letters and parcels sending customers, valuable time when preparing their items or posting at their local Post Office, enabling them to focus on the more important parts of their business.

Anyone wishing to sign up to Drop & Go should visit their nearest participating branch to sign up for an account. The owner of west London-based toy and craft business, Rosy Rosie, started using Drop & Go back in autumn last year in the run up to the busy Christmas gifting period, freeing up her time to get on with running the business.

Rowena Hughes, owner of Rosy Rosie, explaining why she signed up, says: “The biggest thing for me is saving time and it's time I can't claw back from anywhere else – and for me time is money. It's great just to be able to walk straight in, hand over the parcels and not have to worry about sorting the postage and it all goes the same day without me having to wait. This has freed up my time to get on with the really important things which can often get dropped such as marketing and social media, which in due course will result in helping me sell more products.

“As a sole trader, when you add fulfilment into the mix, that can be very time consuming – so anything that saves me time is really welcome. It allows me more time to concentrate on running the business and dealing with my never-ending to-do list.”

Drop & Go was launched in response to the ever-growing e-commerce market, with a recent study showing that 392 million items were sold on eBay last year – with a third of UK adults in on the action. The research showed that almost a quarter (23 per cent) of UK adults sell more than 20 items a year through sites such as eBay.

Eamon Price, Head of Mails at Post Office, said: “Drop & Go is one of many changes taking place across the Post Office network to make it as easy as possible for customers to access our Services. The summer parcels discount shows our commitment to helping small businesses and online sellers to keep down costs, enabling them to get on with running their companies.

“Drop & Go is already providing a much quicker, simpler and more effective experience for customers – and this discount goes further to helping them run a successful and profitable company.”

The Branch Finder service at postoffice.co.uk can locate customers' nearest participating branches – just select “Drop & Go” as the service required.

The Post Office, now independent of Royal Mail, is the largest retail network in the UK, with over 11,500 branches.

It serves around 18 million customers a week and this includes a third of all small businesses across the UK. 99.7 per cent of people are based within three miles of their nearest branch. For many rural communities, the Post Office is the only nearby retail outlet. Post Offices remain highly valued and trusted and are the focal point for many communities.

For more information, visit www.postoffice.co.uk

Posted: 27 June 2014

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