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Weak Link in Online Shopping/Delivery:
Doorstep
Web: First heralded for its convenience, it relies too much on customers
being home. Creative solutions are emerging.
By RACHEL BECK, Associated Press
NEW
YORK--So much for shopping online being as simple as point,
click and buy. What's supposed to be a breeze is turning into a giant
headache for the millions of consumers who miss deliveries of their Web
purchases each day.
Shopper Cheri
Voisine works all day, so she's never home to receive packages. Since
theft is a problem in her neighborhood, packages can't be left on her
front porch and instead must be picked up at a warehouse across town.
"It is so much more complicated than I
thought it would be," said the 28-year-old San Francisco resident.
But shipping companies and some
entrepreneurs, recognizing consumers' frustration and hoping to capitalize
on it, are developing products and services that get packages delivered in
a secure and timely fashion at or near a customer's home.
Hassles over missed deliveries aren't
anything new--catalog shoppers have long had similar trouble. But with
e-commerce growing fast, the number of packages shipped each year is
soaring. Internet consulting firm Forrester Research expects around 2.1
billion packages to be shipped in the residential market by 2003, up from
about a billion last year.
Yet analysts
estimate that some 250 million "Sorry we missed you" notices are
distributed by shipping companies each year. That forces consumers to wait
at least a day or longer to receive their goods--something that is
especially annoying to those who shop online because the process is
supposed to be fast and convenient.
"People shop online because it saves
them time, but there isn't any time saved when they miss a delivery," said
Bruce Weinberg, assistant professor of marketing and e-commerce at Boston
University's Graduate School of Management.
Delivery firms have come up with some
alternatives to help with the delivery problems. FedEx Corp., for
instance, just started a ground service to bring goods to residences on
Saturdays and evenings. Consumers who are willing to pay a $30 surcharge
can also schedule specific delivery times.
Still, many people don't want to wait.
Some are throwing caution aside and allowing shipping companies to leave
the merchandise--regardless of its value--outside their homes.
Others have their purchases sent to them
at work, something employers are starting to frown upon because it clogs
mail rooms with non-priority items. And receiving a package at work still
means having to get it home, which can be an even bigger problem.
Drew Kramer knows what that is like.
While he likes the prices on Pets.com, he doesn't have a doorman at his
New York apartment to receive the big packages. So he gets his orders
shipped to work and ends up lugging 40-pound bags of dog food home on the
bus.
"People like the work option
because they know that it's a safe alternative," said Dan Janal, author of
"Dan Janal's Guide to Marketing on the Internet."
"But it doesn't really solve the
delivery problem," he said.
Some
high-tech companies, however, believe they have a solution.
One is MentalPhysics, based in
Arlington, Va., which recently began testing a modern-day milk chute--an
electronically networked home delivery bin that sits outside someone's
home.
When a customer places an order
with an online retailer, a specific delivery code is generated and sent to
the shipping company. Delivery people then use the code to unlock the bin
and place the package inside. Once the bin is open, the code cannot be
used again.
Through a computer network,
the consumer is informed that the delivery was successfully made. When she
arrives home, she uses her own master codes to unlock the bin.
Consumers will pay a monthly fee to get
the service, most likely under $20.
MentalPhysics is also working with the
Chamberlain Group Inc., which makes garage door openers, to develop
software to work with its systems. MentalPhysics also has been contacted
by some home-building companies to build bins right into their units.
"You can actually order something and
you don't have to worry that you spent $100 and it's lying on your porch,"
said Jeff Stonerock, a Vienna, Va., resident who has been testing the
MentalPhysics bin for the last month.
While getting merchandise at home is
what most people prefer, some companies think consumers are just as happy
with delivery drop-offs near where they live.
San Diego-based Mail Boxes Etc., which
operates more than 4,000 centers across the country, lets people pay about
$20 a month to have their packages shipped to an MBE store. The store will
call a customer when an item arrives.
Some of its locations in New York are
also running a "virtual doorman" program. For a $10 fee per delivery, the
stores will accept anything from dry cleaning to flower arrangements to
parcels.
Another store-based package
retrieval service was developed by PaxZone, which puts together networks
of bricks-and-mortar retailers that agree to be free drop-off points for
consumers' deliveries. It now operates in about 10 Chicago neighborhoods
and is starting up in San Francisco.
People who sign up for PaxZone choose
from a list of local merchants--from supermarkets to video stores--where
they'd like their goods to be sent. When they shop online, they have their
purchases sent to that store, which puts the packages into a locked
cabinet.
A PaxZone employee goes by each
store every day to check on arrivals, then e-mails, faxes or calls
consumers to tell them their items have arrived.
"This lets the consumer be empowered
again," said Matthew Schwingel, who started PaxZone last year. "They don't
have to deal with all that frustration over missing deliveries anymore."
On the Net:
http://www.mentalphysics.com/
http://www.mbe.com/
http://www.paxzone.com/
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