In the last two years, a handful of companies have popped up in the multifamily industry with solutions to the ever-growing problem of online shopping: packages.
Online shopping roped in over $300 billion of business in the last year, with 84% of Americans shopping online at least some or most of the time. Property managers today are very familiar with the painstaking and time-consuming task of sorting and delivering packages. With a 27% increase in online shopping since 2013, a typical 200-unit building is now receiving 50-75 packages per day—which can double ahead of the holiday season.
The most recent solution to come about is the Luxer Room from Luxer One, an affordable alternative to package lockers.
The Luxer Room is just a locked closet where Luxer One installs a control pad. Package carriers drop off all the packages using a code to enter the room and residents are texted or e-mailed a one-time code to access the room when a package arrives. The control pad captures the one-time code, a signature, and a picture to show proof of pick-up.
Package lockers have gained a lot of traction in the last year, but the base models at companies like Parcel Pending, Package Concierge, and Luxer One cost anywhere between $6,000 and $20,000, plus a monthly fee for maintenance and tech support. For such a large upfront cost, most managers are still wondering how long this investment will take to pay off. There’s also a problem of space. These locker systems are very large and most properties don’t have the space to accommodate them in an older building. They’re easier to accommodate as you build rather than to retrofit.
The solution still takes the problem off managers’ hands and allows residents to pick up packages after office hours—one the of the biggest problems residents encounter. It is free to install and requires a low monthly fee for tech support.
The package room doesn’t provide the same security around that the lockers provide, since all packages are in one room instead of each one being in individually locked compartments. However, most lease agreements should already include language specifying that packages are the residents’ responsibility, not management’s.
