This year, it wasn’t just the Grinch, and it wasn’t just Whoville. Across America, Christmas gifts were plundered from the front porches of millions of e-commerce customers, adding up to millions of dollars in theft. A survey by a California-based home security company, called Ring, found nearly 20 percent of homes reported stolen packages in the past year, losing an average of $140 per household.
A digital solutions company, GMGMG, is attempting to tackle this crime-wave with the launch of “InBin,” a specially designed parcel box that allows for easy delivery and retrievals, featuring an encrypted locking mechanism to prevent tampering and sensor technology to alert users of deliveries, pick-ups, temperature, humidity and other important information, as can be seen in this video below.
“Now that Christmas is over, many people have lost their most important purchases right out from under their noses,” said Dave Geipel, a partner with the InBin Solution team. “While they couldn’t have an InBin for Christmas 2017, we have everything in place to make 2018 the year for zero-stress delivery.”
InBin’s press release features a lot of very technical-sounding jargon, such as the internet of things (IoT), Smart Home, Mobile Apps and other technologies to connect users with their deliveries, but the product itself is relatively straightforward, and easy to use.
Porch pirates are opportunistic, striking the most vulnerable deliveries, and InBin deters them by securing the packages in a sturdy plastic bin mounted on the porch. The bin connects to users’ wi-fi networks and uses the InBin app to set their location. Users are then notified via their mobile app or smart home assistants, such as Google Home or Alexa.