Amazon keeps on expanding its delivery options. In 2018, it launched an In-Car delivery service for amongst other GM and Volvo owners. Now, Amazon is giving select Honda models access to Key by Amazon In-Car delivery, as well, so consumers can have parcels dropped right inside their car wherever they’ve parked. Also, Volkswagen is working on in-car delivery with ‘We Deliver‘.
A study by Steffen B. Hepp, supervised by prof. Rafaelle Conti from Università Bocconi (Portugal) looked at whether consumers would accept In-Car Delivery as a novel way to receive parcels. In-Car Delivery has the potential to become a service for the parcel industry, as its concept has shown to solve or at least mitigate consumer pain points. Therefore, it is not surprising that this research finds an overall willingness to use trunk delivery. On the other side, In-Car Delivery brings along an unprecedented set of concerns in parcel delivery, namely customer data and privacy concerns.
In-Car Delivery is not going to be the one solution that will do away with the industry’s problems. While this innovation in parcel delivery may be a superior and viable solution to some, there are too many contingencies preventing it to become the default option of choice for the broader population:
- the need to possess or have access to a car
- cost barrier of installing the technical enablers within the car
- agile and uncertain real-life environment, for instance, the car parked inaccessibly in a garage or private parking lot
- data and security concerns
- the barely self-explanatory nature of trunk delivery compared to other methods.
Steffen concludes: “For In-Car Delivery not to fail in the market place, the postal firms need to offer a truly compelling value proposition to their customers. From a managerial perspective, the first challenge on the path to acceptance of novel delivery modes is communicating to the consumer what is in it for them”.
Walther Ploos van Amstel.
Source: thesis Steffen B. Hepp