Failed deliveries due to unavailability of customers at the delivery addresses cost the online market platforms dearly as the rescheduled deliveries involve both time and cost. Apart from the time and cost, failure to deliver items at the scheduled place on scheduled time also adversely impacts the e-commerce businesses as the inconvenience faced by both customers and delivery agents make people reluctant to place online orders readily.

If you are also in dilemma to place orders online due to uncertainty over giving home, office or any other address, so that you could be available to receive the item at the time of delivery, there is a good new for you.

You may now take advantage of smart lockers situated near you to get the item deposited there and you may collect it from the locker at a convenient time by using the OTP/QR Code sent to you and that too without paying any locker charge.

How to use the facility of Smart Lockers?

Smart lockers probably take away the single-most time-consuming aspect of e-commerce, the actual delivery of the product. Primarily, smart lockers make it easier for both businesses and customers to eliminate a rather tedious and even to an extent, the unnecessary hassle of being physically available for delivery. With smart lockers, one can have their package collected according to their convenience! Besides, it is securely locked which can be opened by an OTP/QR code that only the customer has access to. Smart Lockers thus assure convenience, speed, hassle-free delivery and privacy to the customer.

For online platforms, the ease with which the deliveries are made has led to a phenomenal increase in the demand for quick delivery. While lack of last-mile coordination, shortage of expert consumer-tech platforms and data coordination can lead to repeated delivery attempts – a process that the consumer may find exasperating, usage of Smart Locker technology can ensure that delivery partners succeed in completing more deliveries in a day and cut down completely on delays.

Who pays for the lockers?

Currently smart lockers work with QR Code, RFID, Cloud computing and other technologies that make for safe and secure customer experience. When a package is delivered in the locker, a notification is triggered which lets the customer know that their package has arrived. This will also have a unique password/OTP which only the customer has access to and needs to input, thus giving him/her complete control over when they want to pick it up. This real-time information is logged in the cloud so as to keep the main servers updated so that when a customer looks up for their delivery status, it shows that it is in the locker and the customer can have it picked up.

Usually there is no cost involved for the customer for using the benefits of smart lockers, as the e-commerce platforms have realised that the concept of delivery charges has an adverse effect on the overall consumer experience and has resulted in transactions not being completed due to this. However, companies like Amazon and Flipkart have moved to zero-to-minimum delivery charges and this has been received positively by the consumer. This technology not only eliminates the delay that a repeat delivery may cause it increases the chances of first attempt delivery by 2X in most cases.

Growth of Smart Lockers

When it comes to optimising last-mile delivery and reducing costs, locker deliveries play a vital role. The parcel locker or click and collect industry has already grown to nearly an $800 million industry globally, as per market reports.

Till now the adoption of Smart Lockers is extremely varied across countries. While countries like Finland, Denmark, Germany, China have witnessed quite some momentum with locker technologies and on the other hand countries like Sweden and the Netherlands are yet to see a similar level of traction, India has just started to explore this means of delivery.

“China, Germany, and the US account for more than 40 per cent of the parcel locker market,” said Kushal Nahata, CEO & Co-founder, FarEye, a platform that integrates with disparate locker technologies and empower businesses to gain end-to-end visibility of delivery operations.