New contracts with major delivery companies including DHL have been signed as retailers prepare to meet what industry experts are predicting will be the highest Black Friday sales this Friday (27th November).
Industry experts are currently predicting Friday’s sales will exceed £1 billion for the first time in the UK – a figure that rises year on year as shoppers begin buying gifts earlier to capitalise on pre-Christmas discounts.
In the last month, Nexus has experienced a 50% increase in van bookings with long wheel base and extra-long wheelbase vehicles, the vehicles of choice for most delivery companies, trebling.
The ability to mobilise large volume and specialist rental requirements is a key USP for Nexus, which it says has been a fundamental driver in the booking surge. The rise of e-commerce is widely documented and the changing shopping habits of consumers is having a massive impact on demand for delivery van operators. For the first time ever online retail sales broke through the £100bn barrier for the year in 2014 – representing growth of 14% for the online retail market in the UK, according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index.
John Ellis, managing director of Nexus commented: “Last year the explosion in one-day-long pre-Christmas shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday were a phenomenal retail success, but brought associated delivery headaches with many companies unprepared for the full scale of the impact. Factors including the rise and rise of ecommerce, online led sales promotions, click and collect and a general expectation from consumers that products will be delivered in a matter of days has put a huge strain on the delivery network.
“Daily rental provides a solution which not only retains customer satisfaction and loyalty but also means extra capacity can be used only at the time it’s needed.”
In September Nexus launched a new Management Information (MI) suite enabling customers to more effectively manage their daily rental spend, track trends, review costs and deliver savings from its online rental booking system. The new MI suite enables customers to self-serve their bookings as well as providing an overview of spend, providing in-depth analysis into rental behaviour.