If you have been a victim of package theft or the fear of it bothers you, know that you aren’t alone. Many fellow Americans face this issue regularly. However, thanks to electronic parcel lockers’ security systems, package theft incidents can be prevented. Here is how your property can benefit from electronic parcel lockers in 2021.
More and more property owners and online shoppers across America are relying on using electronic parcel locker security for safe, secure, and convenient delivery of their packages. And the main reason for this is to prevent shipments from becoming a target of package theft incidents. During the last few years and especially after the Covid-19 outbreak, the number of both e-commerce transactions, as well as package theft incidents, have simultaneously increased.
But besides being used as a countermeasure against package theft, electronic parcel lockers security has several other benefits as well. In this article, we specifically discuss the multiple ways in how your property can benefit from parcel lockers in 2021.
Buy Online, Pick-Up In Locker (BOPIL)
BOPIL is an innovative and modified version of the online shopping convenience options of BOPIS (Buy Online, Pick-up In-Store), BORIS (Buy Online, Return In Store), and click-and-collect processes.
Through this, retail outlets offer indoor and/or outdoor placed electronic parcel lockers that can hold the goods ordered online by their customers. BOPIL facilitates online purchasers in various ways. These are –
- Once an online order is received at a physical store, the store places the ordered items into an individual electronic parcel locker. Upon this, customers are notified through text and email with a unique personal code to type or scan when they arrive at the store to retrieve their order from the package locker.
- The convenience of having lockers placed outside the store premises offers the flexibility to collect ordered items at any time, any day. This means parcel lockers can be operated on a 24/7 basis.
- There are also refrigerated parcel lockers that can hold groceries and medicines.
Preventing Parcel Thefts
What’s the issue and why does the need for parcel lockers keep rising?
The trend of front-porch parcel stealing or simply parcel theft is a crime of opportunity. This means that if some person sees an unattended parcel lying outside the door of someone else’s property, they may steal it.
While all such acts are deliberate, they may be deliberate acts of mischievousness by a kid, neighbor, or even a passerby who thinks it as funny; or it may be a deliberate act of theft where the person may be a porch pirate.
But whatever the actual reason behind such an act may be, the fact that parcel thefts have only increased alongside the increase in the number of deliveries due to the rising e-commerce trend is quite disturbing.
For example, in the year 2020, almost 60 percent of Americans reported having at least received one parcel per week. Compared with 2019, this was an increase of 10 percent.
However, along with this more consumers also became a victim of parcel theft incidents with figures jumping from 36 percent in 2019 to 43 percent in 2020.
Electronic parcel lockers
Even though most parcel lockers still use the traditional locking mechanisms of operating through physical key turning, electronic parcel lockers have an edge.
First, electronic parcel lockers can accept delivery from any courier who has a special locker access code. Unlike a key, this code can be generated and changed any number of times for security reasons. Whereas physical keys can neither be shared with the courier company personnel nor can be changed again and again for security reasons.
Second, electronic parcel lockers can send automatic notifications upon receiving a package to inform the property owner that a delivery is pending collection.
How electronic parcel lockers prevent package theft?
Electronic parcel lockers prevent package theft in many ways such as –
- By allowing only authorized access.
- Sending parcel recipients with a unique access code to retrieve their package.
- By providing 24/7 access availability.
Other Advantages of using Parcel Lockers
In addition to the above, there are a few more advantages of using parcel lockers. These include –
Saves staff time
By installing parcel lockers at properties for each unit owner, a great amount of time wasted on parcel delivery management by on-site property management staff can be saved.
Provides flexibility to collect the parcel whenever convenient
Since parcel recipients know that their parcel will directly reach their parcel locker and they will be notified about it, they do not need to be physically present to receive even their important packages.
Moreover, parcel recipients also do not need to worry about collecting their parcel from property management staff or ask for any favors such as waiting for them after duty hours to personally hand over the parcel. There is no need to worry about the parcel arrival time or the time of collection from the package locker.
The parcel remains secure and intact till delivered
Besides preventing any risk of theft, parcel lockers also keep packages safe and intact from any damage or spoilage that may arise due to mishandling or misplacement.
In Conclusion…
Parcel lockers at the property provide an excellent and efficient style of handling and managing all incoming deliveries. They reduce the number of avoidable interactions between a package and any other person, by making the whole process of sending and receiving a package as smooth as possible. Shop for PARCEL LOCKERS today with American Locker!