Courier brother: Hello, your courier has arrived, please sign for it.
User: Well, there is no one at home. Just leave it at the door.
This group of dialogues will often appear in our daily life. Because there are not always people at home when the courier delivers the goods, it often happens that online shopping goods are temporarily left at the door. But for some goods such as clothes and books, it is no problem to leave them at the door for the time being, but what if you buy goods such as fresh food that need quick freezing?
Wal-Mart is trying to solve this problem. Recently, they launched an experimental service to help users solve this problem.
The courier brother can also enter the house
Wal-Mart has reached a cooperation with August Home, a smart home equipment provider, which allows couriers to deliver goods to users' homes ...... even refrigerators can use smart locks for one-time passwords.
Specifically, after the user places an order in Amazon official website, the delivery staff will pick up the goods and deliver them to the user's home when the order is ready. When the delivery staff presses the doorbell of August home for many times and no one answers, the delivery staff can use the one-time password authorized by the user to open the user's home, which is equipped with the smart lock of August home. After entering the door, the delivery staff can put perishable goods or goods that need immediate quick freezing into the refrigerator.
After the delivery personnel enter the user's home, the security camera provided by the home in August will shoot the whole process, and the user can view it in real time through the App.
Although the idea is good, it is still difficult to popularize.
At present, the service is only open to users with August Home smart locks in Silicon Valley. Whether this service will be promoted outside Silicon Valley in the future requires Wal-Mart to assess the demand for this service at this stage.
Users need to pay an extra service fee to use the delivery service to the refrigerator, and Wal-Mart is also testing a variety of services at different prices. It is reported that the price of smart locks, keyboards and cameras of August Home is between 79 and 279 dollars (about 522 yuan-1843 yuan).
In addition to the price, the privacy and safety in the delivery process is also an aspect that users are worried about. Regarding these aspects that users are worried about, the head of Wal-Mart's e-commerce strategy department once said: "This service may not be suitable for everyone, but we hope to provide customers with the opportunity to participate in the test and help us shape future electronic transactions. 」
A constant quirky experiment
Wal-Mart is also under pressure after Amazon bought Whole Foods Supermarket. It has been conducting all kinds of similar eccentric experiments, looking for new ways to challenge Amazon's dominant position in online shopping.
Before the launch of this service, Jet.com, a subsidiary of Wal-Mart, has reached a cooperation with Latch, another smart equipment supplier, to install supporting equipment for 1000 apartment building free of charge, so that couriers can deliver it to your door.
In addition, Wal-Mart also tried to get employees to deliver online orders on their way home from work, put giant food vending machines in the parking lots of some stores, and set up drive-in pick-up points. In this regard, Wal-Mart's vice president in charge of e-commerce strategy and operation also said, "We hope that in the future, we can send the ordered goods directly to any place requested by customers, whether it is refrigerators, garages or anywhere. 」
Finally, regarding this new service of Wal-Mart, I still want to ask you, when there is no one at home, will you let the courier brother in?