First off, we would like to wish all readers a very happy and healthy new year on behalf of the team at Eminent Property Management. While we continue to navigate a unique business environment, we at EPM continue to be inspired by our customers and partners. Additionally, we hope all readers had a fantastic holiday season with friends and family.
We can guarantee that during the holiday season one thing is always consistent, packages! If you’re reading this you likely had an influx of packages, come to your home, business and/or office. It’s always great to receive gifts, but what do you do when those packages become overwhelming? If you want to see how overwhelming this could be head to the package room of any major apartment complex between mid-November and New Year’s Day.
What Service Can You Provide?
Shopping centers are a hub of foot traffic for a community and a center of productivity for your customers. This is a natural location to implement a kiosk for package delivery. This would allow customers to get their shopping needs met while also picking up their packages in a secure way. Through hosting an Amazon Hub Locker a Shopping Center can now offer this service and provide even more value to the community. The lockers are secure, self-service and allow for pick up anytime that is convenient for the customer.
Currently, the lockers are in more than 900 cities and towns across the United States. These are strategically located in convenience stores, grocery stores, apartment buildings and malls.
Landlord Benefits of Hosting an Amazon Hub Locker
Along with the benefit to the community, and ease to your customer, landlords are finding increased foot traffic to their tenants. The lockers generate an additional 350-600 customer visits per month. When polling customers it was found that 42% of retail shoppers purchased a product at the host location while using a locker. Additionally, 72% of customers said they would be likely or more than likely to frequent a host store location in the future.
The lockers are accessible 24/7 and feature a robust customer support for patrons. In addition, the lockers are 100% self service and have zero requirements for the host organization. When reviewing all these factors you will find that the lockers provide a truly passive income stream to your portfolio (through monthly rent), increased business for tenants and flexibility for the community.
The True Value to the Community
The benefit of an Amazon locker to a retail shopping center is only a small part of the total value of this service. As noted earlier, there are numerous benefits to a retail customer. No matter if you live in a suburban neighborhood or an urban apartment complex, there is always a chance of package theft. By having packages delivered to a secure locker the customer knows that their order will be protected. While safety is a top priority your customers also value ease and flexibility. Given the support and self-service of the Amazon Locker a customer can pick-up/drop-off within their daily commute or routine shopping route. The locker keeps the customers needs and interests in the forefront as this service provides a method of discrete delivery for those surprise gifts and a hassle-free method of return for packages.
Opportunities for a New Year
As you evaluate your strategy for the new year it is important to review ancillary income opportunities for your portfolio and value-added services to your customers. The Amazon Hub Locker, and other ancillary programs, are just some of the opportunities to bring to your portfolio in 2022. We at EPM are always happy to have a conversation to further discuss your option on the ancillary income opportunities that make sense for your portfolio. For more information do not hesitate to reach out to us on all of our social media channels @EPMNational or email us at info@epmnational.com
Cheers to a successful 2022,
Michael Mongiardo, Dylan Mantello and Peter Rukis
