Universal investing EUR 2 million in its Austrian logistics
Universal, a company of the Unito Group, is specialising in online commerce of large devices such as white goods, furniture or technical equipment. Apart from Germany and Switzerland, Austria is a core market of the Otto Group. The logistics provided in cooperation with Gebrüder Weiss and using own resources.
Distribution was previously organised from a warehouse in Salzburg. However, this kind of delivery took too much time in today’s scale. Therefore the company modernised its logistics flow, thus reducing the delivery time for its end customers from 5.5 days to 3.5 days. They invested a total of about EUR 2 million in the modernisation project.
From May 2017 Universal is planning to offer next-day delivery for online orders. The company expects this to be a unique selling proposition throughout Austria, according to Dkfm. Achim Güllmann, Managing Director Hanlidng & Taxes, Otto Group Austria.
This initiative is also linked with the newly launched product of the group: Under the brand name “Otto now” customers may rent various consumer goods instead of buying them. Meanwhile in Hamburg, the Otto Group is testing delivery robots for small parcels in a pilot project.