New on digitec and Galaxus: snail mail on demand

In «The Jungle Book» song «Bare Necessities», Baloo the Bear sings, «don’t spend your time lookin’ around for something...when you find out you can live without it». So, if you can live without that product immediately, we’ve just made it possible for you to follow Baloo’s philosophy on our online shops in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. We now offer customers an «Allow longer delivery times» option at the checkout. You can tick the box if you don’t need your order urgently.

Products we have in stock at our own warehouses will arrive a day or two later than they typically would. This gives us 2–3 extra working days for the package to make it to your mailbox or doorstep.

The option will enable us to stick more closely to our promised delivery dates than we have in the past: «On Mondays, we have to process orders from the weekend as well. This makes many of those days particularly unsatisfactory for us», says Philipp Mahler, who worked on the new shop feature as Product Owner. Things in the logistics centre also get tight shortly before the order deadline in the evenings: «At this stage, it’s really difficult to predict the volume of packages.»

Philipp compares the new system to Swiss Post’s A and B postage, whereby letters and parcels sent by A Mail almost always arrive the next day. Although B Mail might also arrive the next day, these deliveries aren’t prioritised on day one. On the following day, however, they’re bumped to the top of the priority list. With our snail mail option, it’s the same story.

Hidden altruists

But will our customers actually use the new feature? After all, the only incentive Digitec and Galaxus is offering here – at least for the meantime – is to feel good about taking a bit of pressure off our logistics team. In addition, according to a survey conducted in Switzerland many online shoppers are impatient. «I believe it’ll be a success», says Philipp. «Over the last few weeks and months, we’ve had dozens of comments from the Community calling for this kind of feature.» That wish, he says, has since become reality. It remains to be seen, however, how many shoppers will opt for a «slow order» in the end.

The slow delivery option is also likely to save Digitec Galaxus money, which could then be used elsewhere. This is because we’ll be able to split our team across the logistics area more evenly and spread out the additional work from Monday over the rest of the week. «What’s far more important to us, though, is reducing stress levels in our warehouses on Mondays, while making our customers happy at the same time», says Philipp.

What do you think about the snail mail option? Will you use it? And which features are our shops still lacking? Join the discussion in the comments section!