eLocal.ie is a combined e-commerce and home delivery service from An Post giving local business the edge over national & international online operators by connecting retailers with their customers both online and in person. The service was launched this week in three major towns and will be tested there before an expected national rollout later this year.

The simple business proposition is that An Post will provide a next day delivery service for businesses and merchants to local customers. A key feature of the eLocal.ie service will involve An Post giving each retailer an online presence, displaying their goods and services, and enabling online orders.

An Post this week began piloting the eLocal.ie in Ennis, Bantry and Mullingar. The company will test the service, assess the business and then begin to roll out eLocal.ie nationwide. Further details available at www.eLocal.ie

eLocal.ie enables customers to:

• Shop online wherever they see the eLocal.ie logo.
• Click and order via the retailer’s eLocal.ie page.
• Have those purchases delivered locally within 24 hours/nationally within 48 hours, or
• Order online and collect in-store.

For example, customer contacts participating business and orders a range of items to be delivered to their home a couple of miles outside the town. The items are gathered, boxed and picked up that afternoon by the local mail office and delivered to the customer by their regular postperson as part of the usual mail delivery on the following day. Customer pays a fee for the delivery or the retailer absorbs the fee in whole or in part. Charges for the service are €7.50 for delivery or €3.50 for ‘click and collect’ and these are the only costs or charges involved.

Recent research conducted by An Post indicated an increasing level of shopping by Irish shoppers being done online with almost half of survey respondents (48%) saying they shop online at least once a month.

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment Denis Naughten TD welcomed the new initiative saying “I’m very much looking forward to the feedback from the eLocal pilot project across Mullingar, Bantry and Ennis with a view to its nationwide roll-out.  This new doorstep delivery service from An Post will give local businesses the edge over national and international online operators by connecting retailers with their customers both online and in person. I know this will be a welcome initiative nationwide as small businesses are the backbone of every Irish provincial town and village and, with consumers across Ireland now spending almost €14,000 online every minute, trading online is essential to create new business, new jobs and new exports.”

Garrett Bridgeman, Managing Director of An Post’s Mails and Parcels division says ‘eLocal helps local business fight back by giving them the capacity to trade online and access our national delivery network. The service will also generate new business for An Post’s own mails network’.

These include AddressPal, an online service for international online shoppers, ReturnPal, an online shopping returns service, and Deliverybox, a wall mounted home post box. These service improvements for both shoppers and businesses signal An Post’s intention to grow its business by making commerce easier for companies and consumers alike.

Source: An Post