E-commerce remains the growth industry of 2020, and in the case of delivery specialist Smartmile, this booming market has spurred an expansion of its services in Finland and the Netherlands, with the company installing 40 new automated pickup facilities between September and November.
Smartmile says it is cooperating with various parcel carriers and retail partners and locating its services in Lidl grocery stores in Finland and the Netherlands as well as K-Group stores, while also adding selected shopping centers in Finland. The company notes that the bulk of its growth is in Finland.
Kati Nevalainen, director of the parcel services unit at Matkahuolto, the second-largest parcel carrier in Finland, commented, “The number of parcels carried by Matkahuolto has grown significantly during 2020 – parcels of domestic online stores by almost 60% and parcels sent by consumers by almost 100%. Automated parcel pickups have been one of the key factors in this growth, our customers have embraced Smartmile’s easy-to-use parcel automates when sending, receiving and returning parcels.”