Mailbox stores’ new e-comm campaign fights ‘porch pirates’

Bloomberg

An association of independent mailbox-store owners is forming a national network for receiving e-commerce packages, seeking to add a layer of security for consumers while capitalising on the surge of online shopping.
Retail Shipping Associates (RSA) plans to announce an effort to organise the group’s stores under a national brand called the Package Hub Business Center, which consumers would use to accept e-commerce deliveries.
The campaign looks to fill a niche for consumers and shippers concerned about so-called porch pirates,
who steal parcels left on doorsteps.
It also could entice FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc, which need to expand profit margins squeezed by inefficient, single-package deliveries to homes.
FedEx and UPS have signed up retail chains such as drugstores to take packages when consumers can’t receive them at home. Because the RSA’s members focus on shipping, they can offer better service for package pickup and drop-off, said association President Brandon Gale.
“We offer more than just shipping,” he said in an interview. “We offer a high-touch, high-service network. That’s what we do for a living.” If enough volume is generated, the association might offer to hold a package until a customer arrives at home and then deliver the parcel within a half-hour window.
The RSA aims to sign up 500 stores in six months and 2,000 in 18 months, he said. About 90 percent of the RSA’s roughly 7,100 members have only one store, offering remote mailboxes, shipping through the major parcel companies and other mail services.
At the outset, the association expects that a consumer would pay a small fee to have a package delivered to one of its locations. The goal is to persuade FedEx and UPS to pick up the cost, since they would benefit from consolidating residential deliveries.