The same-day shipping and delivery market is bursting with companies that want to ensure your packages get to you incredibly fast. One of the newest entrants is August, the smart lock company that was acquired by Assa Abloy last year. At CES, August announced it's expanding its trial in-home delivery service called August Access through a partnership with Deliv, a last-mile delivery service that specializes in same-day delivery. Deliv currently serves more than 4,000 retailers across 1,400 cities in the US, allowing August to provide those retailers with Deliv same-day delivery and August Access in-home delivery.
Now, customers have the option to choose Deliv delivery service for their online orders from retailers including Macy's, PetSmart, and Best Buy. August Access customers with an August or Yale smart lock can opt for in-home delivery after they place their order. Once in-home delivery is authorized, August Access generates a one-time passcode for the Deliv employee delivering the order. Customers will be notified when the delivery is happening after the Deliv employee rings the home's doorbell and a notification is sent to the customer. If no one is home to receive the order, the Deliv employee can use the one-time passcode to enter the home and drop off the package.
August first tested this in-home delivery system with Walmart at the end of 2017. August sees the potential in offering customers same-day and in-home delivery from multiple retailers rather than only one, even if it is a giant like Walmart. Partnering with Deliv gives August a new group of retailers to potentially work with going forward.
Various partner retailers could help August Access better compete with Amazon, which launched its own in-home delivery system last year with its Cloud Cam and Key devices. While Jason Johnson, the cofounder and CEO of August, told TechCrunch that the company isn't necessarily trying to compete with Amazon (and even suggesting Amazon orders could be included in its in-home delivery service), the two services will compete in the long run. Assuming customers want a courier to drop off their packages inside their homes, shopping choices will be dictated by what the customer needs, which retailer has the items, and how quickly and seamlessly that retailer can deliver those items. Amazon has the advantage of controlling every part of its shopping experience, from the initial order to the final delivery.
It's also unclear how ready and willing customers are to use in-home delivery systems. Same-day delivery appears to be unanimously desired—Amazon, Walmart, Target, and other retailers are all scrambling and expanding to support it in as many markets as possible. But Amazon Key launched to some raised eyebrows from customers at the idea of someone entering their home, not to mention customer concern when a flaw was found in Amazon's Cloud Cam devices that made customers further question the security of the system. It's likely that in-home delivery services will have to get more reliable and secure before customers embrace giving a stranger access to their homes.
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