Hermes becomes the first delivery company to offer what3words as an additional address option for all customers
Hermes, one of the leading consumer delivery companies in the UK, has partnered with innovative addressing company what3words to provide even more accurate deliveries. From today, Hermes can now accept what3words addresses from any retailer or e-commerce client and deliver to that exact location.
what3words is a simple way to talk about, and share location. The system divides the world into 57 trillion 3 metre squares, giving each square a new, simplified address made up of three dictionary words. For example, the exact 3 metre square of the front door of what3words London HQ is at ///filled.count.soap.
what3words provides a simple, innovative and robust way for couriers to deliver parcels right to a customer’s doorstep or desired delivery point. Street addresses across the UK can be inaccurate: pins can drop in the centre of the building, leaving couriers struggling to find the correct door or access point, and postcodes often cover a large area. what3words addresses are even more accurate than postal addresses and allow customers to specify their precise delivery location, whether a doorstep or a safe place in their garden.
Hermes delivers over 400 million parcels each year on behalf of some of the UK’s largest online retailers including H&M, Next, ASOS, JD Williams and Debenhams. At the height of lockdown, Hermes delivered 2.5million parcels in one day – beating their previous record during Christmas 2019 of 2.1million.
As online shopping continues to grow, what3words has seen a 833% increase in adoption of its addressing technology on the checkout pages of retailers around the UK, who are looking to provide customers with a way to ensure their delivery makes it to the correct place or a safe contact-free location.
Using the Hermes app, customers can add the what3words address to their profile. The driver will then have the what3words address in addition to the traditional address information, such as postcodes, providing an extra layer of detail for the last mile of the delivery.
Clare Jones, CCO at what3words explained that, “Hermes is leading the way in the UK, delivering on the promise of fast, efficient deliveries for its customers. Traditional street addresses aren’t accurate enough to deliver your online orders smoothly every time. This year has shown the importance of e-commerce, and the role it plays in the UK – with record numbers predicted this Christmas period. This means more deliveries, more new delivery drivers on the road and more customers with increasingly high expectations for fast and seamless deliveries.
Hermes app users only have to update their preferred what3words delivery address once, and every subsequent order, dispatched by Hermes, will arrive at that precise three-metre square. For the retailers, our integration means that Hermes e-commerce clients can deliver to any 3m square in the UK.”
Chris Ashworth, CIO at Hermes UK, said: “We’re really excited to team up with what3words and become the first delivery company in the UK to provide what3words addresses for any parcel. This marks the latest development in our innovation portfolio that we had been planning for some time, however given the pandemic, when we have experienced five years’ growth in five months due to online shopping behaviours changing, we have expedited the use of this tech to further enhance our contact-free deliveries option, at a time when both our clients and their customers need efficient, safe deliveries.”
The Hermes Parcels app is free and can be downloaded for iOS and Android.
Hermes customers can discover the what3words address for their property entrance or safe place via the free what3words app available for iOS and Android, and the online map.
