Blue Yonder turns returns into a competitive advantage for Australia Post

Success Story

Australia Post

Returns Management

Australia Post builds a more connected parcel logistics model with Blue Yonder

satisfaction score amongst live retailers

hours from process initiation to launch

The company

Australia Post, an Australian government-owned corporation that provides postal service throughout the country. It is a self-funding organization with a purpose to connect Australians and serves over 12.7 million delivery points across the country. Its operations include domestic and international mail and parcel delivery, a network of post offices, and a range of products sold through its online shop and retail outlets.

The business challenge

An increase in both outgoing and incoming parcel volume was putting pressure on the Australia Post network. They needed to find sustainable and scalable ways of handling growing parcel volumes. Returns were costly for Australia Post. They were looking for ways to make the process more profitable. With increased competition, Australia Post was keen to improve their retail customers’ loyalty by providing added value, as well as bringing on new customers. Australia Post has a large number of post offices throughout Australia that were being underutilised. They wanted to drive more footfall to these locations. A huge amount of customer service resource was directed towards handling inbound queries about refunds.

The solution

Blue Yonder online returns has built a single platform solution that powers a suite of modular products to solve out-of-home delivery and returns challenges globally. By adopting our solution, Australia Post were able to provide a market leading return experience to their retail customers, as an added value service offering.

Blue Yonder online return's fully customisable returns platform addresses some of the key friction points for the consumer in the returns journey; providing an exceptional returns experience for retailers, consumers and carriers. The portal is easily integrated with all retailers’ systems either via an API or a plugin to the major ecommerce platforms. This meant that 85% of Australia Post’s retail partners adopted the portal. The portal allowed Australia Post to better manage the flow of returns. They could consolidate returns at drop off locations and plan routing more efficiently. The portal gave consumers a digital returns journey which removed the need to print a label. The electronic returns receipt could be taken to one of Australia Posts locations, driving footfall into store. The portal gave consumers access to tracking updates and refund status, alleviating the need to call Australia Post’s call centre.

“We chose to partner with Blue Yonder online returns because we consider them experts in pick-up & drop-off, and it’s really important for us that we do work with the best-in-class from around the world.”

–Australia Post CEO

The Blue Yonder online returns difference

Ecommerce growth in Australia was rapidly accelerating, with a 24% increase in spend year on year Amazon had recently entered the market, further exacerbating the shift towards online shopping The growth of ecommerce also brought new carrier challenger brands, fragmenting the market and taking volume away from Australia post Australian retailers knew that returns were a core part of harnessing ecommerce growth. Whilst in the past there was a tendency to make the returns process as complicated as possible to dissuade consumers, the focus was now on simple and clear returns to drive loyalty and repeat purchase.

Our returns solution was the right choice for Australia Post for several reasons. Global Expertise: Blue Yonder online returns works with some of the biggest carriers in the world and are able to take global expertise and apply it to local carrier challenges. Partnering with Blue Yonder online returns meant Australia Post accessed a product that benefits from ongoing research, development and innovation through Blue Yonder online return’s team of global experts. Speed to market: With out-of-the-box integrations, Blue Yonder online return's portal can be deployed in just two weeks. There’s no need for long and costly internal development. Low-risk commercial model: Blue Yonder online return's commercial model is based on a per parcel fee structure. This limits risk for the carrier and focuses on the shared goal of driving retailer adoption and parcel volume. Flexible digital experience: Australia Post wanted to be able to offer a market leading digital experience to retailers and consumers. Blue Yonder online return's fully customisable merchant portal and seamless and stress-free consumer journey gave them confidence that they could stand out in this space vs competitors.

Merchant Portal
Merchant/retailers can access the portal on an admin level to configure items for their consumers including reason codes, branding and payment options.

Carrier Administration Platform
Carriers can administrate the full portal, including approval/rejection of retailer applications, onboarding and retailer reports.

Consumer Portal
Consumers are able to access the fully branded (either in carrier or merchant brand) portal to book their return, provide details about their item, select an exchange, and pick method/location of return.