Sainsbury’s is the first supermarket to link up with Royal Mail, supporting its rapid expansion of parcel points in convenient locations.

Royal Mail and Sainsbury’s have announced a long-term partnership to roll-out parcel lockers at Sainsbury’s stores across the UK. This is Royal Mail’s first supermarket tie-up as it looks to expand its network of parcel pick-up, drop-off (PUDO) points.

“We’re always looking for innovative ways to deliver the best value, quality and service for our customers,” Patrick Dunne, Chief Property and Procurement Officer at Sainsbury’s, said.  “That’s why we’re delighted to be partnering with Royal Mail to offer this new proposition.”

Royal Mail launched its parcel locker network in December 2024 in response to rapidly growing demand among shoppers for convenient PUDO points for online deliveries. It also wanted to cater for a rising number of second-hand marketplace sellers wanting to use lockers to post or collect parcels.

“Due to the relentless growth in online shopping and secondhand marketplaces, there is increased demand from our customers for more parcel drop off and collection points.”

Jack Clarkson, Group Strategy & Transformation Director, Royal Mail

“Partnering with a retailer with the scale and popularity of Sainsbury’s is great news for our customers, who will now have even more ways to drop off and collect parcels in convenient locations,” Clarkson added.

Pick-up, drop-off (PUDO) was one of the key trends coming out of The Delivery Conference earlier this year, with Emma Clarke, Senior Director of Product Management at Metapack, outlining the sizable opportunity of lockers in online fulfilment.

She pointed to reduced operating costs as one of the key benefits, with groups of parcels being delivered to a single locker block location rather than individual home addresses. This could either be used to maintain margin or could be passed onto customers in lower fees. She also highlighted that PUDO has a 99.1% delivery success rate, reducing the impact of WISMO (Where Is My Order) enquiries burdening customer services team, especially at peak trading times, such as Black Friday or Christmas, as well as reducing failed delivery attempts and porch piracy instances.

Royal Mail’s lockers are already live in six Sainsbury’s stores –  Clapham, Desborough, Kempshott, Low Hall, Kidderminster and Chislehurst – with more set to roll out in the coming months.