David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

On the 20th September I wrote about how the Royal Mail could be killing e-commerce. According to a comment on Boyd's website, they are but he's come up with an ingenious idea.

I pulled out my artbox and came up with this (can you guess what it is yet?):


 
Boyd quite rightly points out that most of us live near a Tesco - Wikipedia states there were 1988 stores in February 2007 so that's a few short of the 14,500 Post Offices around the UK.

But "Tesco Mail" is not intended as a sole mail provider, just a better, cheaper alternative to the current situation.

The logistics of adapting Tesco's current supply chain shouldn't be too difficult. It already has trucks visiting stores at least daily, with some stores receiving dozens of deliveries a day. On the return journey, trucks can collect the mail dropped off by customers.

In the central hubs, the mail can be sorted and allocated to individual stores.

Customers can then collect their mail with their weekly shop. How about getting more clubcard points if you use "Tesco Mail"

Tesco has already launched a catalogue shopping service (rivalling Argos) that can be delivered to your door or to your local store so the concept is tried and tested, albeit on a smaller scale.

Somebody has to come up with a cheap alternative to Royal Mail that residential customers can use. Competition is the only way that will force Royal Mail to adapt and change.

Oh, and if you're reading this Stelios, fancy a bash at "easyMail"?



(Tesco Mail and easyMail are fictitious and the logos are an example of what they could look like, if these services were in existence. All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.)