07-11-2018

Swiss Post is ending the Kaloka innovation project, three years after it was launched. At Kaloka.ch, Swiss Post tested an online marketplace, and the associated logistical challenges of delivering within a few hours, with retailers and speciality shops in the cities of Berne and Zurich. The experience gained in logistics and e-commerce will flow into the further development of Swiss Post services for online retail.

As the operator of Kaloka, Swiss Post has had to come to grips with the needs of retailers and shoppers over the past three years. During this time, Swiss Post gained valuable insights into logistics and e-commerce. These insights will flow into the further development of services for digital retail. Swiss Post was intending to develop the Kaloka innovation project into a sustainable business model that could be expanded into further cities. Kaloka has not met this expectation in terms of scalability. For this reason, Swiss Post is ending the innovation project. The retailers affected in Berne and Zurich have been notified.

Online marketplace for local retailers

Swiss Post launched Kaloka.ch in 2016 as an online marketplace for local specialist retailers and manufacturers of well-known products in each city. By using Kaloka.ch, retailers in the cities of Berne and Zurich had the opportunity to make their products known and accessible to a wider audience through a further sales channel. Delivery to the greater urban areas was made within a few hours or throughout Switzerland by post on the following days. Kaloka was useful to Swiss Post and retailers as an experimental platform to explore the interaction between online marketplace, products and customer needs, as well as integration into established logistics solutions.

Source: Swiss Post