Royal Mail Appointed By River Island To Handle Customer Deliveries

Royal Mail has been appointed by British fashion brand River Island to handle its customer deliveries across the UK using its Tracked 48 services.

• Royal Mail has been appointed by British fashion brand River Island to handle customer deliveries across the UK using its Tracked 48 services
• The two year contract covers the collection and delivery of items. It adds to Royal Mail's existing contract to handle customer returns
• River Island is one of Britain's best-loved fashion brands. Delivering outstanding customer service is at the heart of the River Island brand promise
• Royal Mail is the UK's most trusted delivery provider for online shoppers. With 75 per cent of online shoppers saying they would be more likely to use an online retailer if their items were delivered by Royal Mail (Delivery Matters 2016)
• Royal Mail'sTracked services provide end-to-end tracking for businesses posting parcels to addresses in the UK and customers using a business return service
• Last year, Royal Mail announced a series of improvements to its Tracked service to increase retailer confidence in the products and make its services more accessible, convenient and flexible - see below

Royal Mail has been appointed by British fashion brand River Island to handle its customer deliveries across the UK using its Tracked 48 services.

The two year contract covers the collection and delivery of items from its main warehouse in Milton Keynes to customers nationwide. It adds to Royal Mail's existing contract to handle customer returns using Royal Mail's Tracked Returns service.

Last year, Royal Mail announced a series of improvements to its Tracked services to increase retailer confidence in the products and make its services more accessible, convenient and flexible.

These include:

· increasing the weight limit to 20kg across the product range

· increasing the compensation it offers from £50 to a maximum of £100

· extending the acceptance time of consignments into its network to 23.59 on Tracked 48

· improving access to its network by allowing customers to submit items over the weekend for weekday delivery

From its origins over 50 years ago when it was established in London by Bernard Lewis, River Island has grown to become one of Britain's best-loved high street and online fashion brands, with exceptional customer service at its heart. The company will use Royal Mail's detailed Tracked reporting suite to enable its team to deliver on its customer service promise. The reporting offered with Royal Mail Tracked products is powered by Royal Mail's ongoing investment in barcoding and tracking technology.

Sunil Bhudia, Ecommerce Logistics Manager, River Island said: 'River Island, is a favourite on-trend British brand for families all over the UK. More and more customers are demanding a seamless multichannel experience, so it's really important that our customers trust that we can consistently deliver on speed and convenience particularly for those customers who choose to shop with us online. Our partnership with Royal Mail will enable us to do this and continue to keep customers at the heart of everything we do.'

For further information please contact:
Akudo Ike
PR Manager
Royal Mail Group
07843333035
akudo.ike@royalmail.com

Notes to editors:

About River Island

River Island - Love fashion. Love River Island With over 50 years of fashion retailing experience, River Island is one of the most well-known and loved brands on the High Street.

At River Island we are renowned for our stylish, affordable fashion. The unique touches we bring to our collections help us standout from the rest of the High Street. Our customers can always rely on us for great going-out looks and occasion wear, amazing denim and fabulous bags and shoes. We pride ourselves on being the perfect store to pick up everything you need for a brand new head-to-toe look.

At River Island we always aim to bring new and original fashion to you, with great design at the heart of everything we create. Almost all of our products are designed in-house and, as we have one of the largest design teams on the High Street, we are proud that we can deliver fabulous new fashion in-store and online for you every single week.

With over 300 stores across the UK, Ireland and internationally throughout Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as well as six dedicated online sites operating in four currencies, it's time to get shopping!

www.riverisland.com

About Royal Mail plc
Royal Mail plc is the parent company of Royal Mail Group Limited, the leading provider of postal and delivery services in the UK and the UK's designated universal postal service provider. UK Parcels, International and Letters ('UKPIL') comprises the company's UK and international parcels and letters delivery businesses operating under the 'Royal Mail' and 'Parcelforce Worldwide' brands. Through the Royal Mail Core Network, the company delivers a one-price-goes-anywhere service on a range of parcels and letters products. Royal Mail has the capability to deliver to more than 29 million addresses in the UK, six days a week (excluding UK public holidays). Parcelforce Worldwide operates a separate UK network which collects and delivers express parcels. Royal Mail also owns General Logistics Systems (GLS) which operates one of the largest ground-based, deferred parcel delivery networks in Europe.