People are shopping online more than ever – a trend already moving upward but was exacerbated after the COVID-19 pandemic. Increasingly, people can buy everything online –clothes, household supplies, even groceries! Amazon, BlueApron, InstaCart and countless others are making steady deliveries to residents’ doors.
It’s not uncommon for a resident to receive multiple dozens of packages each month. A typical apartment community receives as many as 200 packages per week, which can double during the holidays.
While package deliveries may be exacerbated in large apartment communities, they equally affect owners of small buildings.
Small buildings are less likely to have a publicly accessible common area for UPS and other carriers to deliver packages. Instead, boxes are left on front doorsteps or wedged between the front and screen doors. When visible from the street, these deliveries indicate that nobody is home—and can put the rental unit at greater risk for break-in.
Online shopping shows no signs of slowing down. So landlords, property managers and HOAs will have to get more creative in managing an influx of package deliveries.
Here are a few strategies for managing package deliveries at your property:
Relinquish responsibility. Ensure residents know that the management team will not be responsible for collecting packages, nor will you be responsible for lost, damaged or stolen deliveries. A simple email reminder may be warranted from time to time.
Install an oversized mailbox. If space allows, consider installing a big (18- by 18- by 24-inch) should do the trick) mailbox that can accommodate packages too large to fit in a resident’s mailbox. This won’t solve all your package delivery challenges, but it will at least help keep some deliveries hidden from street view.
Use smart locks. As building technology becomes more sophisticated, smart lock solutions have grown. You might consider installing a smart lock system on your front door in smaller apartment buildings. Carriers could use a unique code to unlock the front door, allowing them to leave packages in the foyer or other common areas without having access to individual rental units.
Invest in package lockers. Amazon is partnering with apartment buildings to offer “Amazon Hubs,” or locker systems that can be used to receive deliveries sold or fulfilled by Amazon. Amazon will also experiment with allowing other carriers to deliver their packages to those hubs. Amazon isn’t the only purveyor of locker systems.
There are others, each with varying degrees of sophistication. Most cost anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 per locker, but each locker can be shared by five to ten apartments. The most technical locker systems can tell which compartment is empty and randomly assign the locker so that residents can use a unique code to get their package.
Lockers can be accessed any time of the day, which allows for round-the-clock deliveries. The investment can be worth it, given the growth of online shopping. Residents now view storage lockers as an added amenity that can help your building stand out.
According to a survey by Multifamily Executive, over 28% of renters list package lockers as “very important” or near the top on a scale of 1-10 in terms of amenities they care about most.
Despite the spike in online shopping, Cyber Monday 2023 topped 12 Billion in sales, we’re still only at the tip of the iceberg. Most shopping is still conducted in traditional brick-and-mortar retail stores – for now, but the trend to primarily online is growing. Gone are the days of camping out outside of your local electronics store. If that indicates what’s still to come, managing deliveries will become increasingly important for landlords, property managers and HOAs. As technology continues to improve, we expect to see other solutions emerge. Until then, these strategies should give some reprieve as you adapt to residents’ changing needs.
Excerpts from Boston Pads