Rethink parcel sendings from lockers

PostNord has already made it possible for consumers to return parcels through lockers without printing a barcode label - instead, they simply write a code on the parcel. For many people, that small shift makes everyday life easier: no printer, no tape, no hassle. And it lets them use the same lockers they already trust to receive parcels to also send parcels.

But behind the scenes, the production flow still relies on barcodes to keep parcels moving smoothly. When a parcel enters the network without a printed label, the process becomes manual. Someone has to relabel it, handle it separately and make sure it finds its way through the system. It works, but it slows things down and adds cost.
As locker volumes grow, this manual relabelling becomes more than a minor inconvenience; it becomes a structural bottleneck. It’s labour‑intensive, expensive and not scalable in its current form. And that’s exactly why this initiative mattered: to understand how we can keep the experience effortless for consumers while ensuring the production system can keep up.

The goal of the initiative was to understand how new technologies could genuinely solve the core challenge we face today, and to guide both our long‑term vision and the near‑term steps needed to move toward it, so we could make informed decisions before starting to build.

At the centre of the work was a simple, human‑focused question: How might we enable consumers to send parcels through locker compartments as smoothly as possible, while still protecting delivery quality and operational cost‑efficiency through new AI technologies?

Together with two other concept developers, I helped shape the future vision and explore what new AI‑driven solutions could look like in practice. We examined emerging technologies, assessed how they might reshape operational handling across the first mile, terminal sorting, and last‑mile delivery, and evaluated the IT feasibility and Nordic scalability of two potential future solutions.

In parallel with the technical proof‑of‑concept work, I focused on understanding the broader landscape - researching market trends, competitor offerings and how new technologies could support a truly seamless sending experience. This helped us balance three perspectives:
• what consumers see as a smooth, trustworthy sending experience
• what operational trade‑offs new technologies introduce
• what matters most to our target customer segments as they consider joining an upcoming pilot

Together, these efforts created a grounded, forward‑looking foundation, one that clarified the future we’re aiming for and the concrete steps we need to take next to get there.

Within the concept development team, we explored a future vision through blue‑sky thinking - imagining how new technologies, shifting consumer behaviour and evolving operational needs could come together in the years ahead. To make that vision tangible, we created future scenarios and mapped the journeys that would support them.
Together with a future‑state Service Blueprint these artefacts became the foundation for collaboration. They gave stakeholders and experts something concrete to react to, challenge and refine. They also helped the steering group align around what the future could look like, while keeping the near‑term scope focused and realistic.
This balance, dreaming big while grounding decisions in operational reality, shaped the direction of our discovery work and clarified the steps needed to move toward the long‑term vision.

From this work, two possible future visions emerged for addressing the challenge and our core HMW question:

Automated Relabelling - Low, Medium, High
A scalable future where terminals can adapt to different automation levels based on parcel volumes, gradually reducing and ultimately removing the need for human intervention of adding barcode labels to parcels sent via lockers without a barcode label.

Zero Relabelling from Locker to → Locker → Home → Retailer → Service Point
A transformative future where parcels can move through the entire network without the need to add a barcode label at any touchpoint, from sending, to first‑mile, through terminal sorting, to last‑mile delivery. For this project, we scoped the exploration to one end-to-end process, sending from a locker to receiving a locker.

At its core, this initiative was about solving a very real, very practical challenge: how to handle parcels in live production without relying on traditional barcode labels. To explore what a labelless future could look like, we worked with two emerging AI technologies that could fundamentally change how parcels move through the network.

The Tech PoC focused on understanding what these technologies could actually deliver in real operational environments. We partnered with external vendors to assess accuracy, reliability and feasibility, and we explored new operational concepts that could support the future vision. This meant looking closely at how these technologies might reshape the flow across sending, first‑mile, terminal sorting and last‑mile delivery.

The concept work wasn’t just about testing technology; it was about imagining how these tools could unlock new ways of working — and understanding what would need to change around them for the whole system to function smoothly. It was a blend of curiosity, rigour and future‑thinking, all aimed at helping PostNord move toward a smarter, more scalable labelless future.

The following AI technologies were explored, and the results showed that each solution was technically viable, and that, when combined as a hybrid, they could support the two future visions in different and complementary ways.

During Discovery, we explored several concept ideas built on new AI technologies to understand which direction would best support a smoother consumer sending experience. To do this, we combined quantitative and qualitative UX research to capture preferences, motivations and reactions to different concept directions.

Together with the market team, I contributed to the survey design, and with the concept development team, I synthesised the results to form hypotheses for the next phase. I then created a UX discovery test plan and defined realistic end‑to‑end scenarios - from booking a locker compartment to physically dropping off a parcel. I built rapid Figma prototypes for four concept directions and validated them with real users in simulated real‑world sending situations. This mix of hands‑on testing and short, focused interviews deepened our insights and strengthened the evidence through triangulation with the quantitative survey data.

Our research centred on what truly creates a smooth sending experience and what builds trust and adoption. These insights directly informed decisions about how the consumer experience and new technologies should evolve, while balancing the operational realities of handling parcels sent from lockers.

To understand the needs and expectations of our target customer segments - and to assess their readiness to participate in a pilot - we conducted semi‑structured interviews. These conversations helped us uncover motivations, concerns and overall pilot readiness. They also revealed what this segment considers truly innovative in creating a smooth sending and receiving experience for their consumers (outside the scope of this initiative, but valuable learnings nonetheless).

Three key learnings

• Sending from lockers strongly meets both customer and consumer needs. The convenience and flexibility of locker sending resonated across segments, confirming clear demand.
• Whether a parcel is sent or received without a barcode label doesn’t matter - as long as it works. Customers prioritised delivery quality and reliability. If the flow is smooth and dependable, the presence of a printed label is irrelevant.
• Multiparcel sending and local locker‑to‑locker exchanges showed strong potential. Using lockers for local handovers, where a seller leaves a parcel in the same locker the buyer uses to pick it up, was seen as an innovative and valuable way to extend the use of existing infrastructure.

For each future vision, we developed concept ideas, supported by new AI technologies, to identify process constraints, IT complexity, and Nordic scalability potential. For the Automated Relabelling vision, we designed concept ideas that covered every step toward the long‑term solution. For the Zero Relabelling vision, we created early concept ideas specifically for testing in the next phase - ensuring we could validate the approach before moving into build.

A future vision where relabelling becomes not only more efficient as parcel volumes grow, but also easier and less stressful for the people who keep our terminals running. Each terminal can adapt the level of automation to its own reality, supporting staff with smarter tools rather than adding more manual steps.

The journey starts by simplifying today’s relabelling process: using ICR to quickly detect handwritten codes so employees can redirect parcels without slowing down the flow. As volumes increase, medium‑ to high‑automation scenarios combine ICR with image‑matching technology, reducing repetitive tasks, cutting down on errors and freeing people to focus on higher‑value work.

A future vision where existing devices, cameras, apps and handhelds can use ICR and image‑matching to identify parcels from sorting in terminals all the way to last‑mile delivery. This creates a smoother experience for the people handling parcels every day and removes unnecessary friction for consumers. Instead of manually entering labelless parcel codes, use lists where users can simply choose the parcel with only a handwritten code, either from a suggested list or by searching the handwritten code, supported by the parcel image, to make selection effortless and reassuring.

Below are early concept ideas that visualise this direction. In the next step, these concepts should be prototyped and tested with real users in real environments to understand how they support people’s workflows, reduce cognitive load, and improve accuracy. The results will inform decisions about which future vision to pursue next: Zero Relabelling or Automated Relabelling.

Since Zero Relabelling is the most transformative of the future visions, we created a future‑state Service Blueprint to understand what it would take to make it real. Through a series of collaborative workshops, we brought together operational and IT experts to share insights, challenge assumptions and surface real‑world constraints. These conversations helped us see the vision through the eyes of the people who would ultimately make it work, from terminal staff to system owners.

The work also gave us a clearer picture of what true Nordic scalability would require, ensuring the vision wasn’t just inspiring on paper but achievable across markets and grounded in everyday operational reality.