By offering more affordable delivery services.
Australia’s fastest growing small business courier service, Sendle is going head to head with Australia Post, giving small business owners access to big business delivery infrastructure.
In addition to customer pick up, 24/7 drop off options and delivery services up to 70% cheaper than standard parcel post rates, Sendle has recently expanded its same-city zones to make parcel delivery even more affordable.
“When it comes to delivery, Sendle champions small businesses and sustainability. While Australia Post has tried to stamp out competition, Sendle has been busy levelling the parcel delivery playing field,” Sendle co-founder and CEO, James Chin-Moody (pictured) told Appliance Retailer.
Launched in 2014, Sendle was designed to give small businesses an alternative to Australia Post through door-to-door delivery at affordable national flat rates.
“We want to save business owners time, money and a trip to the Post Office through parcel delivery that is simple, affordable and reliable,” he said.
Being environmentally responsible now vital
There is increasing consumer demand for ethical and sustainable business models which transcends most industries, parcel delivery included, Chin-Moody said.
“At Sendle, we are a certified B Corporation and 100% carbon neutral, and we built our business from day one with sustainability in mind. We are seeing in the market the rise of ‘conscious consumerism’ — a movement of consumers looking to solve the negative impact of consumerism on our world through favouring ethical, sustainable brands. These consumers are more educated than ever on where products come from, what they’re made of and how they arrived at their door.
“With eCommerce growing at such a rapid rate we all need to take responsibility for the environmental impact the ‘age of Amazon’ has on the world. This isn’t just a ‘nice to have’ for the industry, it’s an imperative.”
Today’s business owners also want more choice from their delivery providers, he said, with huge uptake of Sendle’s parcel drop-off network in the months since launch.
“The service offers hundreds of 24/7 drop off and collection points across BP stations, newsagents and pharmacies around Australia, providing business owners more flexible and convenient delivery options. The strong early response shows how important it is to the modern business owner to be able to choose how and when they ship to their customers.”
Many of Sendle’s customers are in the retail space and the growth of online shopping means affordability, reliability and convenience are now vital for them.
“In addition to our door-to-door delivery service, we have worked on a number of initiatives to support the needs of retailers. For example the expansion of our same-city zones makes our service even more affordable than Australia Post. For retailers every dollar that they save on parcel delivery is a dollar they can reinvest in growing their operations.
“We also are working towards achieving our goal of offering more 24/7 parcel drop off points than there are Post offices in Australia by 2020.”
Earlier this year, Sendle raised $20 million in a funding round to fuel new product development, partnerships and explore new markets to take its offering to the global stage. “We were overwhelmed by the support we received during the Series B funding round and have wasted no time using it to tackle even more small business pain points,” he said.