Picnic expands into return logistics

Dutch pureplay grocer Picnic is running a pilot that allows its customers to return online purchases from many retailers, according to its technology boss.

Speaking at Retail Week’s Tech. festival yesterday, chief technology officer at Picnic, Daniel Gebler said the grocer is working with a local Dutch logistics company in order to run the return process of unwanted clothes from fashion giants like Zalando.

Gebler said the partnership helps bring economies of scale for both businesses – as after making deliveries, Picnic trucks are empty.

“Until now we did only forward logistics. However, this model leads only to a fleet utilization of 50%. In simple terms, we drive full to our customers, and then empty back. That’s simply not good enough,” he said.

“So, what we’ve started is a pilot, which is now something of a solution, which is our trucks now take things back from customers. So, what we do in the Netherlands is we work with Zalando and we take back returns. Because the fashion industry is simple, everybody orders five pairs of jeans and sends four back.”

Gebler said this is a cost-saving measure both for Picnic and Zalando but is also more convenient for customers too.

“Zalando has been asking: how do you bring the economies of scale down? So, now we have a solution for them, to cost-efficiently bring returns back. It’s also convenient for our customers because they don’t want to have to go to the post office or bring their clothes back in person.”

Picnic first started on returns with books from libraries in 2018 and pivoted to retailers later that year – starting with Dutch etailer Wehkamp in September of that year.

Gebler said it is only partnered with Zalando in a few Dutch cities, but there is scope to widen the partnership.