The platform, which offers logistics services for the journey between an online shop and a customer in all of Europe, wants to expand soon into China, America and Australia. And it wants to teach Czechs that they need not wait more than a few minutes for a delivery.
We are a new Czech company. It pays off to send and receive shipments through us, because we are cheaper than competition and we fit in with your schedule. We have more than 2,000 pick-up points all over the country, where you can pick up or hand over a package when you are passing by. And our home deliveries are right on time. This is how Zásilkovna presents itself to the outside world.
The project of businesswoman Simona Kijonková, Zásilkovna gives work to nearly one thousand employees and focuses on four target groups. The logistics services attract operators of online shops, enabling them to ensure swift delivery of packages to the end customer. Thanks to its expansion, the company can also help companies move into new territory abroad. As for end customers, Zásilkovna tells them that they can rely on having their parcel delivered to their apartment or collect it at one of numerous pick-up points all over the Czech Republic and beyond. The company wants to develop this network even further – by the end of the year it would like to have 3,000 pick-up points, which are operated by shop owners who have partnered with Zásilkovna and had their shops registered as a pick-up point. The last target group are people who take working with a smartphone and using a payment card in their stride, and want to avoid the post office queue. The Mezi námi service is designed with them in mind.
“Every quarter, we visit all the depots, spending part of the day with our employees. We talk to them about what needs to be changed and improved.”Milan Šmíd, Marketing Director, Packeta
The campaigns for all Zásilkovna target groups are built on clearly explaining everything that the company offers.
To introduce the new Mezi námi (“Between us”) service, which is used, as its name suggests, for sending items between people, the company worked with carefully selected influencers. “We’re aware from our survey that people know the Zásilkovna brand. But they don’t know that we’ve got pick-up points for them near where they live. And, most importantly, they’re not aware that they can send shipments to each other,” says Milan Šmíd, Marketing Director at Packeta Group, which owns Zásilkovna. “Influencers therefore got information from us about what services Zásilkovna offers and what their strengths are. They communicated it to their followers. We gave them a relatively free rein because we wanted it to be authentic.” After this campaign, there was a 21 per cent increase in brand awareness in the target group of young people, including mothers of young children, who often buy and sell goods through various websites.
Internal communication is equally important for Zásilkovna. The basis is openness, maximum transparency and communication in the same language with all colleagues. Everyone shares in the company’s success. Information is transmitted in the form of weekly e-mail summaries, company newspapers and “Zásilkovník”, an online magazine displayed on screens at depots. Personal meetings play a key role. “Every quarter, we visit all the depots, spending part of the day with our employees and talking to them about what needs to be changed and improved. We try to make the most of this information and feedback and act on it,” says Šmíd, adding that by the end of the year the number of depots in the Czech Republic will rise to 17.
Zásilkovna gauges customer satisfaction through questionnaires, and there is a customer centre that handles e-mail and Facebook queries. In the future, the company wants to use chatbots more to pinpoint where a package is located, based on the shipment number.
And what about future plans? In the summer of 2019, Packeta covered the whole of Europe, which in practice means that it has contractual arrangements with all European carriers for those online shops that have decided to expand into the old continent. It also partners with companies in Russia, and this year is opening companies in the United Arab Emirates and India. It already has arrangements in America and Australia. And it wants to launch the Mezi námi service in Slovakia this year.