2018 sees 72% increase in people using Collect+ service on Dec 25th

Welwyn Garden City, 28 December 2018: Hundreds of people used their local convenience store’s Collect+ service to return parcels on Christmas Day, data from PayPoint reveals today. It hadn’t even got light when the first parcel was returned at 3:55am on Christmas Day in Peterborough. It was another two hours before the next parcel was returned this time in Ripley, in the East Midlands at 5:56am (See top ten table below).

The most returns took place in London where more than 44 people chose Christmas Day to send back their parcels. In total, 729 people used the Collect+ service at their local convenience store to return parcels on Christmas Day.

Collect+ also potentially saved Christmas for hundreds of families allowing them to pick up parcels on the big day. PayPoint data reveals 1,514 people collected parcels from Collect+ stores on Christmas Day, including 207 eBay collections. The city with the most collections was Glasgow with 73 people picking up parcels via Collect+ on Christmas Day. In all 2,243 people used the Collect+ service on Christmas Day up almost 72% on the previous year’s total 1,306 transactions.

Collect+ is available in 7,500 local convenience stores across the country, it allows customers to collect parcels at a time that best suits them. The majority of Collect+ outlets were open on Christmas Day. In total 14,000 local stores were open on Christmas Day providing services to local communities including groceries, parcels and essential services on a day when all banks and Post Offices were closed.

PayPoint processed more than 175,000 transactions on Christmas Day including topping up electricity, buying gaming credit for their new consoles and even paying rent. PayPoint’s CashOut service allowed 200 people to get instant access to their benefits and emergency payments.

Lewis Alcraft, Commercial Director at PayPoint said: “Whilst most of us tucked into our turkey dinners, thousands of workers in 14,000 local stores across the country were serving their local communities.

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“Our Collect+ service meant many people were not forced to go without their presents on Christmas Day, we were even able to help those people who couldn’t wait until the day was over to return their gifts.”

Swiftest Christmas Day Returns Top 10

3:55am Peterborough, Cambridgeshire

5:56am Ripley, East Midlands

7:22am Paignton, Devon

7:58am Dagenham, East London

8:10am Uxbridge, West London

9:06am Blackburn, Lancashire

9:12am Hinckley, Leicestershire

9:18am London

9:53am Thatcham, Berkshire

-ENDS-

Enquiries:

Steve O’Neill

Marketing Director +44(0)1707 600 440 [email protected]

PayPoint Press Office

MHP Communications

[email protected] +44(0) 20 3128 8100

ABOUT PAYPOINT In thousands of retail locations, at home and on the move, we make life more convenient for everyone.

For retailers, we offer innovative and time-saving technology that empowers convenience retailers in the UK and Romania to achieve higher footfall and increased spend so they can grow their businesses profitably. Our innovative retail services platform, PayPoint One, is now live in over 11,000 stores in the UK and offers everything a modern convenience store needs, from parcels and contactless card payments to EPoS and bill payment services. Our technology helps retailers to serve customers quickly, improve business efficiency and stay connected to their stores from anywhere.

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We help millions of people to control their household finances, make essential payments and access in-store services, like parcel collections and drop-offs. Our UK network of 28,000 stores is bigger than all banks, supermarkets and Post Offices together, putting us at the heart of communities nationwide.

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