Amazon announced Wednesday a new service that will allow the main members to receive parcel delivery home to help Intelligent high-tech locks that allow drivers to open their entry doors.
Amazon Key will be officially launched on November 8 in 37 US cities and surrounding communities, with additional locations to add over time. The service will be available at no additional cost to core members and will work with standard, two-day, overnight and same-day deliveries.
"Amazon Key gives customers peace of mind knowing that their orders have been delivered safely to their homes and waiting for them when they walk through their doors," said Peter Larsen, vice president of the company. delivery technology at Amazon.
To use this service, Premium members must order an Amazon Key Kit in their home, which includes Amazon Cloud Cam and one of the many compatible smart locks offered by Kwickset or Yale. The Amazon Key In-Home Kit starts at $ 249.99. The locks can be professionally installed at no additional cost or self-installed by customers, according to Amazon.
Beyond deliveries
When a driver requests access to the customer's home, the Cloud Cam confirms that the driver is at the correct address through an encrypted authentication process. Once the request is authenticated, the Cloud Cam starts to register the delivery and the door is unlocked.
Customers can track the broadcast with the help of the Amazon Key app on their mobile phone. They receive real-time notifications and can watch live deliveries or see the recordings later. The entire delivery process is backed up by the
Amazon Happiness Guarantee, said the company.
The agreement is a big step for
Yale. Its parent company, Assa Abloy, also announced on Wednesday that it was testing a home delivery service with 100 customers in Sweden, working with the PostNord delivery company and the ecommerce retailers Jollyroom, Apotea and Komplett. Yale Doorman digital locks are used in tests.
"It's important in that we're working with Amazon, obviously a force in online retail, and working with them on one of the most innovative programs in e-commerce and home delivery ". the E-Commerce Times by spokesperson Terry Shea.
The Amazon Key program will provide functionality that goes beyond home delivery of packages, the company said. Customers will be able to grant a keyless entry for family and friends, and they will be able to set the frequency and duration of access to the home.
Amazon plans to launch a new program that will allow thousands of businesses to access homes using smart lock technology, including companies like the Merry Housekeeping Service Maids and Rover.
"Rover changes the way pet owners discover, book and manage personalized care for their pets," said spokesperson Brandie Gonzales.
"This new integration with Amazon Key is the latest example of how we are driving the pet care revolution," she told the E-Commerce Times.
Growth outweighs the risk
Amazon is the game that the benefit of having secure home delivery of parcels will outweigh the potential drawback of the perception that it is seeking an invasive level of privacy. customer access.
"While many customers might view this feature as too intrusive, Amazon – and Walmart – has identified an intersection between customer needs and new technologies," said Matt Sargent, senior vice president of distribution at
Magid.
"This ability [is] is not only possible, but incredibly interesting for a subset of advanced customers," he told the E-Commerce Times.
The need already exists, according to Sargent. People have been looking for a way to provide secure access to prevent the theft of packages, and to allow the entry of households and other service providers. The advent of remote security cameras and intelligent locks made it possible to meet this need.
The home delivery service is another example of Amazon who invented new ways to reach consumer portfolios without an obvious business case, said Paula Rosenblum, managing partner of
RSR Research.
"I think it's too intrusive and too risky," she told the E-Commerce Times.
Amazon Prime has approximately 90 million members in the United States, according to a report released by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners last week.
About 63% of all US-based Amazon customers belong to Prime, noted the company. Amazon estimates that members of the group are essential to its growth because, on average, they spend $ 1,300 per year on purchases, almost twice as much as the other members.
From a security point of view, smart lock technologies pose more of a physical challenge than a technological challenge, suggested William Malik, vice president of infrastructure strategy at Trend Micro.
"The technology may grant access only to authorized Amazon employees, but it would be helpful to understand the process of Amazon to control delivery people, revoke their access, audit compliance with industry standards. Amazon, and guarantee the misuse of this access ". says the E-Commerce Times.
August's experience
August Access has been operating August Access, a home delivery service for several years, offering retailers and services from all walks of life – including Sears Home Delivery and Wag – a secure home access service.
Years ago, when her former housekeeper was due to return to Brazil, she still had the keys to her house, recalls Jason Johnson, CEO of August.
What should people do in situations like this, he wondered, changing the locks? Although Johnson did not think he needed to do this, it seemed that many people would appreciate the opportunity to provide controlled access to their home for certain activities.
The desire to find a solution to this problem led Johnson and a co-founder to launch August.
"From the beginning, we thought about how we could provide conditional access at home," he told the E-Commerce Times.
August smart locks use secure Bluetooth technology, with an encryption layer on top, plus a third level of security that has been subjected to a white-hat security audit to protect the systems from being compromised. potential intrusion.
Last month, Walmart began working with August and Deliv to test the distribution of food in the refrigerator. Companies have tested the service in the Silicon Valley area with a number of customers who have August smart locks. They are provided with a unique access code for secure access to allow deliveries to be placed inside the house.
"We want to provide customers with additional solutions and options to make it easier for them," Walmart spokesperson Ravi Jariwala told E-Commerce Times.
Walmart announced earlier this month the acquisition of Parcel, a start-up that provides meal kits, grocery products and e-commerce purchases to New York homes. Walmart plans to use Parcels for deliveries of groceries and parcels from Walmart and Jet.