Mere days before the intense Black Friday sales period, Amazon has dropped its latest online shopping bomb.
The online retail giant has brought its Amazon Hub delivery service to Australia, and it’s available from today.
Amazon Hub is a parcel pick up service that has been running in the U.S. for eight years. It allows customers to have their Amazon orders delivered to either a counter or self service locker.
Considering the number of complaints regarding Australia Post parcels being sent straight to the post office even if you were absolutely home – the appeal of a new kind of delivery service is understandable.
It’s particularly useful if you’re unable to get to the post office during business hours, don’t want orders sitting on your doorstep or can’t get things delivered to work.
Customers have two options when it comes to Amazon Hub – Locker and Counter.
When your order has arrived you will receive an email notification with a unique barcode and six digital coded that are needed to pick up your delivery.
For ‘Counter’ deliveries you will need to show either of these verification methods to retrieve your package. Locker is a self service system, where you will need to scan the barcode or punch in the six-digit pin themselves to unlock the locker.
You have 3 days to pick up your parcel from Lockers and 14 days from Counters. If you fail to pick up during that time period the items will be returned for a refund.
You can check your closest locations on the Amazon Hub site. You can also see the opening hours of locations, with some lockers being available 24 hours a day.
Using the service doesn’t cost extra and can be used with both regular and express delivery.
Some of the launch locations have included Commonwealth Bank, Stockland Shopping Centres and Victorian Authorised Newsagents Association (VANA) locations.
The latter is a particularly interesting way of giving new life to newsagents in a media landscape that is increasingly digital.
“Since 2016, my newsagent has served our Palm Plaza Dandenong community. Counter gives my customers a new, convenient way to pick up their Amazon parcels, and I’m confident it will drive new customers who have never shopped with me to my local kiosk. I’m delighted to offer Counter and can’t wait for the results it will generate for my business,” said Sineth Sar, owner of Palm Plaza Lotto Dandenong.
It will be fascinating to see how many people take this up over Black Friday and the Christmas period, and how Locker in particular will handle potential congestion.
Amazon Hub is currently operating in select areas but will be rolled out further in the future.