Dongcheng Electronic Smart Locker: Unlock Home Delivery Paradox

Smart Lockers are considered the eventual solutions to home delivery which has long been a paradox after the percentage of deliveries has reached unprecedented peaks. This strong demand has enormously boomed technical firms targeting lockers connected with the internet. As a leading intelligent locker manufacturer and supplier based in China, we have widely extended our business into the locker business including parcel lockers, refrigerated lockers, even lockers with the advanced technology of fingerprint and facial recognition.

Thanks to these lockers, the carriers and postal operators delivering those parcels are keener than ever to break the monopoly of home delivery, and to upgrade their own offerings in out-of-home delivery. Nevertheless, things have unfolded uneasily at the beginning of the new coronavirus. The huge increase in parcel volumes thanks to Covid-19 was a sharp shock to the system, a vision of demand spiraling out of control and of insufficient space, people and time to manage it all. Of course, posts and carriers adapted fast, and the worst consequences were very temporary, especially with the help of parcel lockers. It was all hands to the pump, and many posts and carriers suffered a serious deterioration in operating performance.

The impact was huge. In addition to the rises shown above, the likes of An Post, Yamato and Australia Post all reported parcel volume growth well over 50% year-over-year.

Right now, the industry has a handful of years before those exceptional volumes become the norm. At that time we will, of course, see continued investment in infrastructure: in more vehicles, more sheds, more urban depots, more people, etc. But the question has to be asked: can posts and carriers afford to keep building, hiring, and driving more forever?

For some, maintaining that level of investment for as long as e-commerce keeps growing will become economically unsustainable. For others, it’s just undesirable. Either way, the growing recognition is that the alternative is to reduce the percentage of parcels they deliver to-door, to consolidate deliveries, and improve capacity without building new infrastructure, by routing more deliveries through out-of-home delivery or pick-up and drop-off (PUDO) options. This comes the time for the business of Dongcheng Electronic who has dedicated to mitigating a paradox like this.

Parcel lockers are poured tremendously into the market especially during the covid-19 to ease the pain of the delivery industry. China – a market in which 33.9 billion parcels were delivered in the first half of 2020 – realized this a long time ago, and the market has been flooded with around 350,000 locker banks and one million parcel shops to provide guaranteed first time delivery at B2B locations and the ability to consolidate drop-offs.

This is why in the past few months PUDO projects around the world, with major national and international parcel carriers and posts investing in long-term efforts to both improve their out-of-home delivery options and encourage more consumers to adopt them.

So what steps are carriers taking? In Japan, Yamato just signed a historic deal with Doddle as part of its Next 100 transformation plan, with the intention to further the development of its nationwide PUDO network. For Yamato, PUDO is part of their twin focus on sustainability and customer-centricity – pick-up and drop-off locations will enable more flexibility for consumers in the world’s fourth-largest e-commerce market, where home deliveries currently hold a 99% share.

Finally, in Australia, Australia Post has rapidly rolled out its Collect & Return PUDO offering to post offices and third-party stores in partnership with Doddle. The service is designed to maximize the value of their extensive post office network and its role in local communities, as well as improve the sustainability of Australia Post’s overall delivery network.

Covid-19 might be making consumers spend much more time at home, but it has made carriers around the world pull back from focusing exclusively on home deliveries, this has been realized by smart locker manufacturers and suppliers.

About Dongcheng Electronic

With over 20 years in the locker business, Dongcheng Electronic has dedicated to the package delivery industries, applying advanced technology like IoT, encryption Technology and Cloud Computing to OEM smart lockers. Our mission is to relentlessly perfect the delivery industry and make it easier to send and receive goods.