Tom Allason, founder of the internet start-up Shutl and Growing Business’ Top Gun in 2007, has announced the expansion of his company’s service into the north of England and Scotland.
Part of the Young Gun class of 2007 with his first start-up eCourier.co.uk, Allason left the firm in 2008 to set up Shutl. The service launched in March 2010 and has since achieved many accolades in its own right.
The delivery service, which allows shoppers to receive online purchases within as little as 90 minutes – or to choose a one-hour delivery window for a later date – has thus far only been available to consumers within the M25. However, following the announcement, the service has expanded into Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh, with further cities to follow in the coming months.
According to recent research from The Co-operative Electrical, online shoppers in the UK waste, on average, five days a year waiting for purchases to be delivered.
Shutl aggregates the capacity of local same-day couriers into a web service. When integrated into a retailer’s e-commerce platforms, this allows them to fulfil online orders from stock at local stores, in theory enabling much faster and more convenient delivery than is possible from a centralised warehouse.
Allason, whose business was named Angel/VC backed Business of the Year in last year's Startups Awards, said: “Assuming everything goes to plan, we expect to launch across a further five cities in the coming weeks. Our goal is to have sufficient coverage by November to give high-street retailers a significant competitive edge over Amazon and the other pure-play e-tailers this Christmas.”
He added: “This next phase of Shutl’s expansion will enable us to serve around 25% of online shoppers in the UK.”