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The last-stage delivery startup takes after JD.com’s self pick-up lockers
HOP!, an acronym for House of Parcels, is a logistics startup that wants you to collect parcels at your convenience, skipping time waiting home or queuing at the Post Office.
“Delivery is only convenient if you’re going to be at home during the arrival [or if you have a doorman]. But some people also want privacy, like if you’ve shipped things that you don’t necessarily want seen by all your colleagues,” said Christian Secci, Co-founder and Managing Director at HOP!
This is how the last-step service works: When you shop online at the local retail partners that HOP! is working with — this includes e-commerce sites BeeCrazy, StrawberryNET, Shopline and Zalora, and more are in the works — you can choose to have the parcel sent to the closest HOP! locker instead of the usual shipping address. The cost is either absorbed or a few HKD extra.
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Once the order is placed and shipped, you receive a collection code via SMS or email. From there, you can collect the parcel anytime once it is delivered to the locker. The door can only be opened after the mobile number and code are entered.
At the moment, HOP! has 23 machines installed in Hong Kong, with an additional 27 going up next month.
Riding on the wave of ASEAN ‘s e-commerce industry
In the US, Amazon launched Amazon Locker in convenience stores and drugstores, in September 2011.
JD.com, China’s largest online B2B sales platform and the mainland equivalent of Amazon, also introduced its own parcel lockers when it launched.
“This is good news, it means we are going in the right direction. In China, there are about 25 million parcels being shipped per day, and it’s expected to grow exponentially,” said Secci.
While HOP! machines are themselves manufactured in Guangzhou, the startup is not looking to move into the mainland market despite the vast opportunity.
“There is too much competition in China right now, and the [profit] per parcel is too low. You also really need to have an extensive network to start up in this industry in China,” said Secci.
Instead, HOP! is looking to expand into Southeast Asia. The team already has 300 units of the lockers in Bangkok and would like to next dip its toes into the Singapore market.
This would mean coming face-to-face with dominant player Singapore Post Ltd (SingPost), which last year rolled out next-gen post offices that feature parcel locker terminals (POPStations) to serve customers round the clock.
“SingPost is moving towards e-commerce and vice versa. It’s the nature of the industry now,” said Secci.
SingPost also recently acquired a 96.3 per cent stake in US e-commerce provider TradeGlobal for S$236 million (US$168.6 million) and announced plans to build a futuristic e-commerce concept, an ‘O2′ (O-squared), mall which combines shopping offline and online.
Also Read: SingPost’s new shopping mall to offer e-comm logistics services
HOP! is planning on raising more capital to use in the future for expansion. It has raised an undisclosed amount of seed money previously from private investors.
Also Read: SingPost buys US e-commerce provider TradeGlobal for US$168.6M
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