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Walgreens and Fedex have announced a “long-term” agreement to have the drugstore chain’s locations serve as package drop-off and pickup destinations for FedEx. The deal calls for the two companies to begin a “small-scale rollout” this spring with expectations that the service will be available at thousands of the chain’s stores by the end of the year. The two companies are looking for the service to be available at all of the nearly 8,000 Walgreens by the fall of next year.
Walgreens and Fedex see the partnership as a means to help consumers with e-commerce deliveries and returns. Customers will be able to drop off pre-packaged and labeled shipments to Walgreens for FedEx pickup while also being able to direct the delivery of online purchases to their local drugstore.
“Walgreens, with its strong focus on customer care, is the perfect retailer to help us continue to meet the growing demand for convenient, secure drop off and pick up options, and our research has shown that customers rank pharmacies as a preferred location for accessing their e-commerce shipments,” said Raj Subramaniam, executive vice president and chief marketing and communications officer, FedEx Corporation, in a statement.
“Working with FedEx to provide safe and secure delivery locations while making it easy for customers to ship returns and other packages through the FedEx networks is another way we are becoming America’s most loved pharmacy-led health, wellbeing and beauty retailer,” said Reuben Slone, senior vice president of supply chain at Walgreens. “We look forward to providing our customers with these convenient options that will be available whenever the store is open.”