Online Shopping Hasn’t Always Delivered
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 about that. While he likes the prices on Pets.com, he doesn’t have a doorman at his New York apartment to receive 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.”
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 online, a delivery code is generated and sent to the shipping company. Delivery people 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 made and she can use her own master code to unlock the bin.
Consumers will pay a monthly fee to get the service, most likely less than $20. Its Internet address is https://www.mentalphysics.com.
MentalPhysics is working with the Chamberlain Group Inc., which makes garage-door openers, to develop software for its systems and says some home building companies want 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 stores across the country (https://www.mbe.com), lets people pay about $20 a month to have their packages shipped to an MBE store. The store calls 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 everything from dry cleaning to flower arrangements to parcel packages.
