The war to improve service in e-commerce seems to have no limits. Delivery on the next day, on the same day, in an hour, at home, in the office and by drone, among others, are some of the services developed in recent years. The players in this market, however, are not playing around when it comes to increasing convenience for the buyer.
Amazon recently showed the Amazon Key, a service in which the company's delivery person will leave the product inside your home. Not at the door, or in a mailbox, but on your desk in your living room, or in the hallway. The gain behind the idea is to prevent deliveries from being returned due to the absence of the recipient, which also entails costs for the company, or that there is a risk of theft of the goods, when left in an easily accessible location. Not just products, but even services like cleaning can be purchased. The new modality is already available, initially limited to 37 American cities, and will be restricted to Amazon Prime subscribers.
Video 1 – Amazon Key
Cast iron: Amazon
Interestingly, the global e-commerce giant seems to be even a little late in this regard. That's because Walmart announced in September that it will already test delivery not only inside the buyer's home, but that it will also arrange the items in the appropriate places, including putting cold food and drinks in the refrigerator.
Figure 1 – Walmart wants to deliver your groceries to the refrigerator
Source: Walmart
Evidently, people's main concern when considering the use of this type of service is with security, after all, they would be allowing strangers to enter their residence without being present. Because of this, both services require the buyer to have a Smart Lock, which requires remote authorization from the owner of the house for people to enter, and a Cloud Cam, which allows the user to follow in real time what happens in his house during the delivery. Amazon's proprietary kit with the two items costs $250, which should also help fund the initiative.
So, what do you think? Would you like to use any of these services? And what will be the new e-commerce innovations?
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Fernando Chalréo
He has been working on consulting projects in Logistics and Supply Chain for 5 years, with experience in companies in the consumer goods, retail and food and beverage sectors. Types of projects already carried out: Sales & Operations Planning, Inventory Management, Network Planning, Business Process Review, Logistics Indicators and Transport Management
