Lazada and Ninja Van partner with 7-Eleven on ecommerce delivery network

Image credit: Ninja Van

Singaporean shoppers will soon be able to collect their online purchases at 7-Eleven, thanks to a deal between the convenience store chain, Alibaba-owned ecommerce site Lazada, and last-mile logistics provider Ninja Van.

Customers will be able to collect items bought from the Lazada marketplace from any of 350 7-Eleven outlets across the city-state. Shoppers can select which store they wish to collect from when checking out on Lazada’s site, and Ninja Van will drop off purchases at the relevant collection point. The feature will be available at 159 7-Eleven stores from 6 p.m. today, with more collection points being rolled out over the coming weeks.

Lazada users can pay a delivery fee of up to S$2.99 (US$2.17) to have regular-sized packages sent to their homes. But those that opt for in-store collection at 7-Eleven won’t have to pay any delivery costs.

To be eligible for the new service, parcels must be a maximum of 80 cm in width, height, and depth, and should weigh no more than 5 kg.

Explaining the decision to team up with Lazada and Ninja Van, Crispian Leong, head of marketing at 7-Eleven Singapore, said: “Over 35 percent of Singaporean households have two or fewer residents, with close to 25,000 new dual or single-person households forming just between 2016 and 2017. Most are working during the day, and many may not find it convenient to receive parcels at their office.”

The option for customers to claim parcels from drop-off points at their own convenience will also help alleviate problems associated with failed deliveries, said Ray Chou, Ninja Van’s country head for Singapore.

“We do encounter a substantial number of failed deliveries, which is disruptive for not only our customers, but sellers and delivery companies as well. With this wide network for self-service collection points, customers now have [a] hassle-free option,” he said.

The collaboration between the three companies is the latest of several ecommerce collection-point initiatives to launch in Singapore. Ninja Van operates its own Ninja Collect service, which leaves parcels in specialized lockers or with partner merchants. The country’s postal service operator, Singapore Post, also provides digital lockers called PopStations for ecommerce and mail collection in about 140 locations.

Park N Parcel, a startup incubated at the National University of Singapore that raised seed funding earlier this year, provides a self-collection system which allows shoppers to nominate their neighbors or local business owners as proxy recipients.

Currency converted from Singapore dollars. Rate: US$1 = S$1.38