What do YOU think of this: A Deliverer Entering Person’s Home OK? Amazon believes many of its customers will love this practice. And that they will pay for it. But, critics say most people won’t want a stranger in their home if they are away.
We know most shoppers want convenience and speed in having products delivered. See Next-Day Delivery and Same-Day Delivery. What’s Ahead for the Subscription Box Service? Uber Eat(s) Setting Itself Up for Defeat?
People feel OK if home for deliveries and with packages left at their door. But, will they leave a key for a deliverer to enter their home?
Amazon Key: A New Form of Delivery
Powerhouse Amazon believes its new in-home delivery will be a big hit:
“Amazon Key is an exclusive service for Prime members. It radically improves the convenience of receiving deliveries. And it allows in-home delivery and secure home access for guests and others. Find out at https://www.amazon.com/key.”
Check out the video overview of Amazon Key.
And Amazon sees a bright future for this service. Look at the pricing strategy:
“Amazon Key works for for Prime members in select cities and surrounding areas. To get started, purchase the Amazon Key In-Home Kit, starting at $249.99. The kit includes Amazon’s indoor cloud camera and a smart lock.”
“As a Prime member, get Amazon packages delivered inside your front door. Plus, grant access to the people you trust. Such as your family, friends, dog walker, or house cleaner. No leaving a key under the mat.”
Amazon’s confidence springs from the huge number of Prime Members. And that number grows each year. And each quarter.
For further information on Amazon Key, click the animated image.
Is a Deliverer Entering Person’s Home OK?
To date, it seems most things Amazon touches turn to gold. But, will this be the exception? Would YOU subscribe to Amazon Key?
First, a lot of shoppers may find $249.99 pricey for the in-home kit. Second, Amazon does not yet know if shoppers trust in-home delivery.
In sum, consider these eMarketer observations:
“Amazon, Walmart, and shippers seek ways to get items past customers’ front doors. Their latest strategy — to drop packages inside homes. Or, for groceries, inside fridges. But consumers haven’t bought into the concept. Yet. In a Recode survey, 5% of Prime users say they will definitely buy it. Yet, 58% definitely won’t.”
“The percent who’d buy was similar whether or not a person used Prime.”
Personally, I would never spend extra money to have a delivery person enter my home. However, I can actually see people liking the idea, since this time of year there are many packages being delivered for the holidays, and folks would feel much better if their products were not sitting on their porch for someone to possibly take. Since privacy is an issue for many, I don’t see the idea blasting off.
I think a delivery person entering one’s home is an invasion of privacy. I believe that delivery to your front door is convenient enough. Additionally, spending $250 for the Amazon Key-In Home Kit is a pricey investment that I don’t believe is worth the benefits.
I think it is really interesting because I personally wouldn’t have thought of this because I am fortunate enough to live in a town where I didn’t have to worry about my packages being stolen off my doorstep. I can understand the demand for a product like this coming from people who live in areas where theft is common. I don’t know if this idea is appealing enough for people to grant an unknown person access to their own home. Personally, I would not feel comfortable with people entering my home.
$249.99 is a big amount when it comes to the Amazon key and I don’t know that many people are willing to pay that amount, it seems a bit more in future. Security is a concern but not that big as the user can always look into their smartphones and see whether everything was fine or not. It surely has a potential to go big in United States but when we talk about other countries, this may not seem to be a service people really need. Whether the time is right or not is up for debate but Amazon being Amazon can handle such stuff.
Personally, I would definitely not pay $250 for this service and more importantly I am more concerned with privacy and security. I would not feel comfortable whatsoever with someone delivering something and entering into my house without someone being home. Hence, the high percentage of people who said they are definitely not buying this. I don’t see Amazon thriving off of this strategy one bit!
I agree with those above that I in no way trust any strangers entering my home, especially for $249.99. However, with the way they advertise their services and products, I feel Amazon may have a chance with its latest Amazon key product. Certainly there are those who have issues with package theft or those who may be disabled who require someone to enter their home and fill their fridge with groceries. Amazon does turn the things they touch to gold. Though we are all skeptical of the success of this Amazon Key, I believe they will find a way to make it work.
Amazon has been amazing for me in years past. Two day shipping is something that is very hard to beat. I can almost guarantee that I would not get this product. Theres enough trust between me and my neighbors that we won’t be scumbags and steal packages outside each others door. Maybe Amazon Key would be more appealing where that type of thing happens more often. $250 for a stranger to come into my house? ill raise you to 300, good sir.
I think Amazon is bringing up an interesting dilemma: would consumers rather risk packages left on porches getting stolen, or allow a stranger into their homes to deliver the package. For me, I think I would rather accept the former risk. Amazon cannot possibly ensure that every delivery driver will behave ethically, as this would be far too time-consuming and logistically impossible, as behaviors cannot always be predicted. Further, I can’t say that I can imagine many people wanting to, essentially, pay $250 for an invasion of privacy. I believe there will be some people who will purchase it for the sake of convenience, but I don’t see many people choosing to purchase it of eliminate the risk of package theft while introducing the risk of theft of belongings in the home.
Amazon is taking an invasive approach to a delivery issue. I personally would never pay for an amazon lock and key, but I can see and appreciate the introduction of the service. During the holiday season, many people will spend astronomical amounts of money on presents for friends and family, and thief’s can safely bet on large value in packages waiting on doorsteps. However, the idea of giving someone access to your home that is a complete stranger doesn’t sit well with me. You don’t know who this person is, and they have access to your home. Personally, I think they should offer package insurance in the event that packages are stolen, or just opt for delivery that requires signatures to be complete. Just my .02
I think that this is a reasonable marketing strategy because there are definitely some people who could benefit from this service, however, for the general public this service may seem ridiculous and extremely invasive. While those entering these homes have surely undergone extensive background checks, it still seems invasive for a random Amazon worker to have the ability to enter your home and have a key to your house. By giving someone a key to your home, you are putting a lot of trust in them and it is very difficult to have trust in strangers. I think that unless there are people who explicitly need this service, it will not be widely accepted by the public.
While I agree that people may find it appealing to spend some extra money to have amazon deliver the product inside their homes, I personally would not opt for in-home delivery. Maybe its due to the fact that I have never had an issue with a package being stolen at my front door, but I do not find it necessary to spend extra money to have a package delivered into my home. I trust my neighbors to respect the package on my front porch, more so than i trust a random delivery man/woman to treat my home with respect.
This service seems overpriced and like a bad idea to me. The goal behind the service is to make sure that people do not steal packages off of your front porch. However, I have never had issues with this in the area that I live in. While others may have this issue, I still think that is is more unsafe to allow a stranger to come into your home. I think a box outside of one’s house, kind of like a mailbox, that needs a code to enter, would make more sense for those who deal with this issue. While it may be more expensive to install, it may pay off more in the long run while maintaining the safety of your home.
At present there are front door locks that allow people into your home either via an app or keycode. So the $250 kit is nothing new.
I have lived in several houses, my present one included, that have double entries. It has a mudroom before you enter the house proper. Under those circumstances, I would be okay with it.
In fact, I have had delivery people do just that, leave a package in my mudroom. I was home at the time and had not locked the door behind me.
Adverse weather is a greater concern for me than theft. I have had packages ruined due to being left out of sight and in bad weather.
A different perspective to consider.
Interesting. 🙂
In my opinion, I will never allow deliverer to enter my home, because I think it is not safe. Putting package in front the door is enough to me. If people are not home or vacation, I think house hold service is better than enter home. In addition, I think the extra money is too much, it is not worth.
From the survey, I would say that Amazon shouldn’t go ahead with this service. If 58% of Amazon Prime users said that they would definitely not get the service then I think they should have some sort of other plan that would limit the ability of the delivery person to go directly into customer’s homes. A suggestion I have would be a specific mail box that can only be accessed by a certain code that the delivery person has access to, therefore they can avoid going into the person’s home.
Amazon has a service called Amazon Lockers where you get just that.
With the acquisition of Whole Foods, they are pushing to add them to those stores. However, other retailers in the same shopping centers have provisions that prevent that from happening in certain cases.
Amazon has these lockers in other places as well. I think they had a deal with 7-Eleven when they started the program. I am not sure that is still in place.
As far as Amazon Key:
Keep in mind that 42% of Amazon Prime subscribers might be a large enough pool to make it financially viable if not profitable.
To participate in the program you have to not only opt-in, but also buy the $250 kit. And you can always opt-out at any time or for any length of time. ie you only want the option for Christmas shopping or back-to-school…
Great commentary
I don’t know how I feel about someone else entering my home. I assume that the people Amazon hires to do this are extensively checked but the whole concept is strange to me. I’ve never had any issues with deliveries being taken off my doorstep so I’m not going to sign up for this. I’m interested to see how it plays out in the future though.
This is an interesting question as it is determining whether people value the privacy of the home or the safety of their packages more. Personally, I would not invest in this but I do not think that it will completely fail. Amazon would have to guarantee safety and background checks for its delivery workers, but most of us trust getting into a car with a random Uber or Lyft driver so I see a good number of people trusting Amazon workers in the same way.
While there is always the potential to be wrong on a call, I do believe this service will perform poorly. I know that I wouldn’t use the service without my mudroom hosting the Amazon Key door, and another secure door for the balance of my house. To me, at least, it seems that having a traditional outdoors lockbox makes more sense than this. This might cause a slump in amazon services across the board, as people do not enjoy their privacy being compromised. Perhaps a service like this may fare better in Europe than the United States.
I don’t personally think that there is a big enough market for something like this at the moment. There are better options for delivery safety such as security cameras, which can be cheaper, that can prevent someone from steal your package at your front door. I think that a better market would be having an electronic lock and giving a deliverer access. Being able to give a key to friend or visiting family electronically is a much more palatable market in my opinion.
In my opinion, I might not want deliverer entering my home. I don’t think it is a good idea for me. I think that home is the private space, I don’t like to stranger go entering person’s home. So, I would not to spend money to let stranger enter my home, it is not safe to me at all. The better way deliver can do is delivered packages in front of the door, before they delivered package, they could text a message to us, and let us to choose when is the best time to deliver the package, then we could find a best time to pick it up.
Personally, I would not purchase this service. It is very pricey and also comes at a high risk. Generally, the things I order off of amazon are not pricey and are less valuable than the things I own in my home. Yes, even if the product I ordered was $150, that is still less than the laptop or T.V. I have in my home that could potentially be stolen if I authorize an amazon employee to enter my home when I am not there. I have also had packages stolen from my porch, and generally amazon makes it hassle free to have that same product shipped to my house for no extra charge if it is an inexpensive item.
With this home delivery, I believe the only improvement from their most convenient delivery service (the same day shipping) is that the package will be on the other side of the front door. There are more cons than pros in this situation. A prime member is the only person eligible for this “luxury,” and they are already paying the extra bucks for the membership let alone more shipping privileges that aren’t as great Amazon makes it out to be. Since security and privacy has heightened within the last two decades, I feel people will feel more inclined to shy away from this deal rather than go for it. They would shy away from this not only for the costs for the prime membership AND the Amazon key, but for the fact that a stranger has access to their home.
Judging by their video Amazon’s argument in terms of safety would be that the kit comes with a camera and that you could check with their app, but I disagree. Employees could be tempted to commit unethical activities especially if they’re in a nice house. Like most people who commented I would never buy this predominantly due to the fact that there would be a stranger that has access to my house.
When new products which may cause privacy issues like Amazon key, I consider myself in the group of early majority or late majority. It is because I consider my privacy very important, and only if the product has been widely used would I consider make a purchase. So, even though I understand that there must be some people who like Amazon key, I am really curious about why there are 5% of Prime subscribers and 4% of non-Prime subscribers are saying that they are definitely buying Amazon key. If they are facing the problem of losing packages, then having someone you don’t know to have the access to your home may have the potential of losing more things. And also even though you can see whole process of how the deliver from Amazon enter and leave your home, you can’t control their eyes. Which means when you have deliveries, you should always be careful about things or letters that may leak your personal information, and keep them away from your front door area. So for me, this new product isn’t saving me time. It actually is causing me more problems and making me worry a lot.
Good thoughts
I don’t see this amazon delivery feature becoming very successful, do to the fact that i wouldn’t want random UPS or FedEx guys having access to my house. The only positive that i can see is that many times during the holiday season you see people stealing boxes off people’s porches. But at the end of the day that falls on the company not the individual that bought the product so though its an interesting idea i don’t see many people paying for it.
After reading this article, it’s insane to me that people have the audacity to steal from others. I actually was working at my job when a women was telling me that over 800 dollars worth of packages were stolen from her house that she had purchased over amazon. I don’t think that amazon making a feature that records the person delivering the item in the house is smart. My reason for this is because what if the person turns off the device and says there was a glitch or that someone will leave the door open and go back later. I just don’t think it is smart at all and I don’t want UPS or FedEx entering my home without me there.
This is so absurd to me! With everything that’s going on in today’s world, I’d be very surprised if something like this took off. I understand that you’d have to pay to have the security camera installed but even if it’s there – what stops someone from entering your home and stealing something? Once they stole something it’s gone – even if it’s on camera or not! This poses such a safety issue and would make me feel so uncomfortable. What if I was in the shower or didn’t feel like opening the door for the delivery person? I’d have an unwanted visitor inside! Interested in seeing how this turns out but my guess is that it won’t be well received.
I think it is really good.Becuase in China do this for long time and also in US deliever will not call you if he can not find you.May deliever it again for three times.If you still miss it may back to sender.So delivery to home is a good way for my opinion.