Amazon has started offering apartment landlords a bundle of services to persuade them to install package lockers.
The incentives — collectively known as Easier with Amazon — include free one-year Prime membership and an Echo device (Alexa, that is) for tenants, along with locker access. Landlords would also receive assistance in installing and maintaining the lockers.
So far, the retail giant has partnered with at least four apartment buildings — three in Texas and one in Oregon — to offer the new service bundle, The Information reports.
The incentives seem to be an effort by the company to expand the reach of its apartment-building locker program and, presumably, encourage more ordering from Amazon.
For tenants, it would protect against package theft. Porch piracy is a serious issue for online retailers. According to a 2017 survey by Shorr Packaging Corp., 31% of respondents report having a package stolen off their porches.
Amazon has package delivery competition. UPS is expanding its partnership with Latch, a smart lock startup that allows drivers to enter apartment buildings to make deliveries. Currently operating in New York and San Francisco, Latch will open in eight other major U.S. cities by mid-2019.
Amazon is now floating the idea of allowing delivery workers to open garage doors to drop off packages. It is a slight tweak on its earlier Amazon Key platform, which allowed Amazon inside homes to drop packages and wasn’t particularly successful, The Verge reports.
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