Is in-home delivery driving security spending?

Anyone who has fallen victim to the dreaded “porch pirates” can understand why the current smart home trend of in-home delivery of packages continues to catch on. Nothing sucks more than having video footage — from a video doorbell or camera — of someone grabbing your goods off your stoop and having no power to do anything about it.

It is this convergence of technology and convenience that is driving interest in, and spending on, security. In fact, nearly half of consumers who currently own or intend to buy a smart door lock, a smart garage door opener or video doorbell value the ability to remotely allow Amazon package deliveries, according to new research from Parks Associates, an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services.

“Battle for the Front Door: The Access Control Ecosystem” reports that one-third of owners or future buyers rate this capability as very valuable, with 37 percent of smart access control device owners or intenders willing to pay up to $1.98 per package for delivery inside their home or garage.

“The growth of online shopping from sites like Amazon and Walmart has led to an increasing problem of package theft but has also created a new use case for the smart home,” Chris O'Dell, research associate, Parks Associates, said in the announcement. “As consumers increasingly rely on home package delivery, and look for ways to make this process more secure, they have a greater awareness of access control devices like video doorbells, smart door locks and smart garage door openers.”

The prospect of package theft creates opportunity for smart home device manufacturers and service providers to boost consumer confidence by guaranteeing safe package delivery with in-home and in-garage delivery services. Amazon's 2019 partnership with Chamberlain highlights this potential. Among consumers who own or plan to buy a smart door lock, a smart garage door opener or video doorbell, 43 percent find the ability for FedEx or UPS to perform in-garage delivery to be valuable.

“Enabling home services will ultimately drive adoption of access control devices by expanding their value to consumers,” O'Dell said. “Traditional garage door openers typically have a lifecycle of 10 or more years, so companies need a strong and unique value proposition with smart garage door openers in order to expedite growth in the market. The promise of safe package delivery, combined with partnerships that incent purchase and ease installation concerns, can be that driver.”

Found in the report is an assessment of the access control ecosystem, profiles of key players in each device category and evaluations of home services strategies. It also includes five-year forecasts of smart door lock, video doorbell and smart garage door opener adoption. For example, one-quarter of U.S. broadband households plan to purchase a video doorbell in the next year.