Petrol stations will be acting as collection points for online customers of John Lewis as part of a trial it is running.

It is offering the service through CollectPlus, which enables customers to pick up online purchases at local convenience stores and petrol forecourts, and the trial will initially launch in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and the South West of England.

CollectPlus claims it has more than 5,250 local stores in its UK network, and that more than 88% of people in towns in the UK are within a mile of a CollectPlus store. The John Lewis CollectPlus service will be available to consumers at 1,500 locations at a cost £3.

The new service follows the successful launch of a free national returns offer in February, which gives John Lewis customers the choice to return online purchases from their local CollectPlus store.

Alan Troy, manager of the Castle Service Station and Spar store in Ballycastle, Northern Ireland, said: "I was very pleased to hear that John Lewis is now offering a collection service through CollectPlus in Ballycastle. Our opening hours and the parking available outside make us very convenient for customers and, as a result, the CollectPlus service has been extremely popular. I’m now telling all our customers that they can choose to have online John Lewis purchases delivered to the store for collection at a time that suits them."