The neighborhood businesses They have been subjected to tension for three years without limit or signs of ending in the short term, creating a panorama of uncertainty that puts their ability to continue holding on at risk.

But there are more and more formulas to try to survive in very complex environments. And one of them is offered by InPost, the leading European logistics company in non-home delivery, with its program to become Pack point. It simply consists of operate as a point of collection and delivery of orders What people do who do not want to have to wait at home for the courier, but prefer to choose where to receive their purchases online and pick them up whenever they want.

It is the great logistics revolution, and it is helping to save many businesses from the abyss.

Being an InPost Pack Point: extra income and more potential customers

The company has collected testimonials from some Punto Pack spread throughout Spain, where its hybrid network of Punto Pack and Lockers already exceeds 4,000 points. If there is unanimity about something, it is that becoming an InPost Pack Point allows neighborhood businesses to gain visibility, since it contributes to a greater traffic of people who enter the establishment to collect their orders.

“Since we are Punto Pack many more people know us”, they explain in Risbar, a Madrid courier company. They agree with this vision at the Arancia gas station, in El Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), where they also add that “almost all people, when they come to bring or pick up a package, usually buy a product”.

Cross selling

In InPost they call this ‘cross-selling’, and it is one of the benefits of becoming a Punto Pack: increasing sales simply by increasing the number of customers entering the establishment. “We have increased sales by 70% thanks to being Punto Pack”they explain in Neko, a newspaper and candy store located in Badajoz that even figures in a 40% of the monthly income that comes from your condition as Punto Pack. Its manager goes further and stresses that, thanks to their role as Punto Pack, they were able to survive the worst moments of the pandemic thanks to the income generated as InPost’s Punto Pack.

In other cases, businesses such as stationery La Repro, located in Aranjuez (Madrid), highlights that the flow of people that enters your establishment is a lifeline for sectors in which seasonality wreaks havoc. And it is that, while its main business fluctuates at certain times of the year, the lack of people who come to pick up packages does not stop at any time, with peaks of activity on certain dates, such as Black Friday or Christmas.

In addition, the manager of La Repro assures that “50% of Punto Pack customers” who approach your “establishment to pick up or send a package, buy a product” of your trade.

“For us, these testimonials are a source of pride and joy, as they show that the utility of our non-home shipping model not only makes life easier for people who choose InPost as their shipping method when shopping online. does not improve the efficiency of courier companies, but rather has a direct positive impact on the local commercial fabric, which is usually the one that suffers the most from any economic or social turbulence”explains Nicola D’Elia, CEO in Spain, Portugal and Italy of the InPost group.

Desigual reinforces its interest in innovation and emerging companies, with the launch of a open call to incorporate new projects to Awesome Labits innovation program.

The fashion brand has the collaboration of Wayra, Telefónica’s open innovation initiative and a benchmark in technological progress and growth of the ecosystem of entrepreneurs in Spain.

It is an international call that runs until March 27. Interested startups may submit their applications through the Awesome Lab website. Desigual and Wayra will look at the projects that they can contribute solutions in key areas for the company and the fashion sector such as the user experience, the analysis of customer and product-oriented data, the payment methods or the optimization of the logistics channel.

The announcement was made during Desigual’s participation in 4FYN, the event dedicated to the entrepreneurial ecosystem that is held within the framework of the Mobile World Congress. In the words of Thomas Meyer, founder and president of Desigual, “Since our origins we have opted for innovation, it is one of our pillars within the Open Desigual philosophy and the one that allows us to maintain the spirit of constant transformation that characterizes us. We want to continue advancing and this is only possible by generating new opportunities that allow us to develop new ways of working and the incorporation of ideas and evolution in all areas and levels of the company”.

This open call seeks to attract projects that can make a difference in the textile sector. It will be carried out in different stages, which will begin with the analysis of the submitted applications and a first selection of between eight and 10 companies that will have the opportunity to present their proposal before an expert jury in April.

Finally, four will be chosen to develop the pilot projects and work with the different areas of the company starting in May.

A continued commitment to collaboration and innovation

Awesome Lab was born in 2021 as the first accelerator for startups in the fashion sector in Spain. A pioneering project that in its first edition had the participation of seven emerging companies including Syrup, a solution based on Artificial Intelligence for inventory management that has participated in the Desigual conference at the Agora Stage of 4FYN.

In this second edition of the programme, which began last October, Desigual has focused on reinforcing the partnership principle and have startups in an advanced phase that allow proof of concept (POC) to be activated almost from the outset.