Gel Proximity integrates lockers and pickup points into e-commerce checkouts, making deliveries more flexible and reducing failed delivery trips.
The global e-commerce market surpassed the 5,500 billion dollar mark in value in 2026. According to the Global E-Commerce Compass report, online purchases account for approximately 21 per cent of total retail sales worldwide. Yet it is in the last mile that the system so often grinds to a halt. Once a product has been selected, 59 per cent of checkout abandonments are driven by logistics-related reasons: the leading causes include high shipping costs (55 per cent), rigid and limited delivery options (35 per cent), or – in one case out of three – uncertainty over delivery times.
To address this kind of digital mistrust, Gel Proximity was founded in 2020 in Milan to connect the main out-of-home logistics services within a single digital infrastructure. This term refers to the various delivery methods whereby a parcel is not delivered directly to the recipient's home or work address, but to an external pickup point chosen by the customer.
Through a single technological integration, Gel Proximity makes more than one million pickup points and lockers available to e-commerce businesses, marketplaces and major logistics providers across Italy and Europe. This allows the end user to view an interactive map directly at checkout, from which they can choose newsagents, cafés, tobacconists or automated lockers where their purchases can be delivered.
The technology offered by Gel Proximity also covers returns management. Via a dedicated portal, based on the automatic generation of QR codes and web links, the customer can return an item at a fixed point in just a few minutes, without having to print paper labels or carry out complex integration procedures. Furthermore, for brands that have them, physical stores on the ground can also be integrated into the platform as additional pickup or return points, fostering synergy between in-store and online sales.
The potential emissions savings stem from the way deliveries are organised. A courier can deliver multiple parcels to the same pickup point or locker, rather than reaching each home address separately. Moreover, since delivery does not depend on the recipient being present, the additional trips caused by failed delivery attempts are avoided. Concentrating parcels at a smaller number of destinations can therefore reduce the number of journeys, kilometres travelled and related CO2 emissions. It is partly for this reason that Gel Proximity is part of the ecosystem of naturally sustainable startups at LifeGate Way.
A separate chapter concerns cities – or more precisely, urban logistics. The platform enables multiple operators to use the same networks of lockers and logistics micro-hubs, digitally coordinating goods flows, access and deposit and collection operations. This approach makes it possible to overcome the fragmentation of logistics networks and renders distribution models more efficient.
One example is Urbane, a project funded by the European Horizon Europe programme, within which Gel Proximity contributed to the creation of three automated micro-hubs in Bologna. The infrastructure, shared among different logistics operators, allows goods to be transferred from conventional vehicles to low-environmental-impact means such as cargo bikes and electric vehicles for last-mile distribution. Gel Proximity developed and implemented the software system that makes it possible to digitally manage micro-hub operations, making them accessible to multiple carriers through a single technological platform. In Rimini, through the HoReCa Last Mile project, Gel Proximity contributed to the testing of a shared refrigerated micro-hub, integrated with an urban distribution system using cargo bikes.
