In Pioltello, near Milan, Esselunga has installed the first machine for online orders which transports the goods automated to the output tray. The Click&Collect store complements a range of chilled parcel lockers that the Italian retailer has already installed for the pick-up of online orders.
Picking up goods from the machine is very easy for users of the Esselunga app: all they have to do is scan the code of their order at the machine, and the it will then convey the goods to a very large output tray. The machine cools in two zones, one in the range of 0-4 degrees Celsius and one in the range of minus 20 degrees Celsius.
Pick-up stations against the cost of home delivery
Esselunga was the first food retailer in Italy to sell food online. Now the Milanese are trying to reduce the high cost of home delivery by offering a large number of pick-up points. Customers can order from over 15,000 products for collection free of charge as long as the value of the order exceeds 40 Euros.
The dispenser joins Esselunga’s existing installations of parcel machines, where each individual order is given its own compartment, the door of which opens on collection. During the lockdown, Esselunga had increasingly installed such machines in hospitals to support medical staff, as they are used on a large scale by Amazon and DHL without refrigeration.
Esselunga has also installed many of these refrigerated parcel delivery lockers in the car parks of its stores and in public spaces. They are now available in Milan, San Giuliano Milanese, Lissone, Macherio, Stezzano, Vigevano, Olgiate Olona, Parma, Prato and Florence.
Esselunga has so far relied on such pickup lockers. (Photo: Esselunga)
