Secretive web start-up Shutl has finally unveiled its proposition, with its founder Tom Allason promising an “e-commerce revolution”.<\/p>\n
Online shoppers will be able to have their purchases delivered in less than 90 minutes thanks to the company’s technology, which connects retailers with local same-day couriers.<\/p>\n
It aggregates capacity across local same-day couriers into a web service which integrates with retailers’ e-commerce platforms, allowing retailers to offer delivery at a price comparable to the cost of standard multi-day delivery.<\/p>\n
The company secured £0.5m in funding in October from a group of investors including Big Bang ventures, Bebo founder Paul Birch and LoveFilm investor Simon Murdoch and is led by Allason, who previously co-founded online courier service eCourier.co.uk alongside Jay Bregman.<\/p>\n
Shutl intends to compete with Amazon’s same-day delivery service, which is only open to consumers in London, because it delivers stock from high street locations to consumers living locally.<\/p>\n
Unlike other retailers, which require shoppers to order items before a certain time to guarantee receipt, Shutl allows customers to order at any time of the day.<\/p>\n
“E-commerce has come a long way in the last 15 years, but delivery has hardly progressed at all. We’re going to change that,” said Allason.<\/p>\n
He added that the service should prove attractive to high street retailers, who are struggling to compete against online rivals.<\/p>\n
The firm is launching its platform with a collection of smaller shops before Christmas, and one major retail chain is already signed up to use the service in its London stores from the end of January.<\/p>\n
Allason said the service will be available to shops across the rest of the UK by Christmas 2010.<\/p>\n
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Secretive web start-up Shutl has finally unveiled its proposition, with its founder Tom Allason promising an “e-commerce revolution”. Online shoppers will be able to have their purchases delivered in less than 90 minutes thanks to the company’s technology, which connects retailers with local same-day couriers. It aggregates capacity across local same-day couriers into a web […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91469,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n