Back-to-school shopping has undergone a significant shift in recent years, propelled by the continued rise of online shopping. Gone are the days when students and parents loaded up the car with school supplies after a single, intense shopping spree. Today, the focus has shifted towards convenience, customization, and continuous accessibility. However, this shift has introduced new challenges for student housing communities, particularly in managing the ever-increasing volume of deliveries. Here’s a look at how back-to-school shopping has changed and why a smart package management solution is now essential for student housing buildings across the nation.
Back-to-School Shopping Then:
In the 1990s and earlier, back-to-school shopping meant a trip to local stores with an expansive list of items in hand. Without the convenience of online shopping, students and parents had to shop for large, bulky items like bedding, storage containers, and other appliances before arriving on campus to move in. Once on campus, shopping was infrequent, often involving small, essential items (school supplies, clothing, books) purchased during move-in, the occasional school break, or when family visited due to limited transportation and shopping accessibility. Many students also relied on care packages from home throughout the year to replenish supplies. Overall, back-to-school shopping was a time-consuming process that required a great deal of planning, offering low convenience and low customization when buying supplies. The lack of instant access to items on demand also meant students had fewer options once they arrived on campus, forcing them to make do with what they had brought.
Back-to-School Shopping Now:
In the era of online shopping, students enjoy the convenience of ordering almost everything they need online-from school supplies to dorm essentials. Shopping is no longer a pre-campus ritual but an ongoing process throughout the school year. Students can arrive on campus knowing they can order bulky items like furniture or electronics and have them delivered directly to their door. With this shift to online shopping, students enjoy high customization and convenience, as they can order exactly what they want, when they want, without worrying about running out of space in the car or planning every detail ahead of time. However, the convenience of e-commerce has created a new challenge: managing the sheer volume of packages that arrive on campus. Without a reliable package management solution, campuses struggle to keep up with the influx of deliveries, leading to delays, messy lobbies, and student frustration.
This narrative resonates deeply with Shelly Peterson, Smart Package Room’s Senior Director of Real Estate. Recently, she experienced this transformation first-hand while preparing to send her son back-to-school. Shelly initially intended to order all necessary items via Amazon and have them shipped to his dorm. However, with thousands of new students arriving on campus, her son’s college experienced significant delays in processing packages for pickup. “It’s a major issue for many college campuses. They often struggle to process large quantities of deliveries without a smart package management system,” Shelly explained. The inefficiencies become glaringly apparent during peak times, such as the beginning of the school year when the volume of deliveries skyrockets. The traditional process of handling deliveries is labor-intensive and time-consuming, creating bottlenecks that inconvenience students and staff alike. “Back-to-school shopping is a stressful experience, and campuses need to alleviate that stress by having a solution for package deliveries so they can move students in quicker,” Shelly advises.
Frustrated by the delays, Shelly opted to do an in-store pickup at a local retailer instead. “We did a pickup from a store, which was less convenient than having it go to the dorm, but it was the best option in the end because of the dorm’s long wait times,” she shared.
Shelly’s experience underscores the pressing need for an advanced, all-in-one smart package management solution for student housing. One that seamlessly integrates with modern day student’s shopping behaviors.
Smart Package Room: The Perfect Package Solution for Student Housing
As college campuses catch up with the demands of today’s students, Smart Package Room® offers the perfect package management solution for student housing communities. Here’s why:
- Flexibility: Smart Package Room accommodates packages of any size and type, from small items like pens and notecards to large, bulky mattresses, rugs, and televisions.
Versatility: The system is scalable and customizable based on a property’s package volume, ensuring it can manage both low and high package quantities with ease.- Security: Around-the-clock monitoring and coded access ensure that packages are safe and secure until students are ready to retrieve them.
- Convenience: 24/7 access allows students to pick up their packages on their schedule.
- Organized: The room features distinct zones for standard, flat, and oversized packages, making it easy to locate and retrieve items.
- Efficient: Upon delivery, students receive a text and email notification with a QR code and PIN. They can scan the QR code or enter the PIN at the rooms external kiosk, and the system’s precision tracking technology directs them to the exact location of their package via light, laser, and audio guidance.
- High Capacity: Unlike traditional parcel lockers, the Smart Package Room open shelf design allows it to hold 2-3 times more packages on average, ensuring it can manage the high volume of deliveries during peak times, such as move-in season.
By implementing Smart Package Room, campuses can provide students with a seamless and stress-free package pickup experience, ensuring that online shopping remains as convenient as it was meant to be.
If you want to learn more about how Smart Package Room can transform package delivery and pickup for student housing, contact us at or visit www.smartpackageroom.com.