Dive Brief:

• Amazon’s annual Prime Day sales event ended yesterday, but packages are still arriving at apartment communities around the country, challenging onsite staffers.
• Last year, Prime Day orders accounted for 2% of the packages arriving at apartment properties, according to information ButterflyMX, a New York-based property technology company specializing in smartphone-based access control, shared with Multifamily Dive. Although the volume of packages from this year’s promotion isn’t yet known, it will likely be higher than last year, according to Aaron Rudenstine, CEO of ButterflyMX. 
• Prime Day ran from July 12 to July 13, but an influx of packages should arrive at properties into next week. “it may take several days for the packages to arrive, meaning this Prime Day spike can last through the end of the week or longer,” Rudenstine said.
   

Dive Insight:

Over the past decade, package deliveries have increased in apartment communities across the board. Still, Prime Day poses a unique challenge. 

“Amazon has done an amazing job of making Prime Day a shopping holiday for all retailers,” Rudenstine said. “It’s common for people to delay a purchase to take advantage of the discounts that are available. When you add that to the growing influx of packages, it creates a stress point for people who live and work in multifamily buildings.”

While the annual promotion has been around since 2015, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based Morgan Properties — the No. 3 largest owner of apartments in the country, according to the National Multifamily Housing Council — noticed a jump in deliveries for the event last year. “I didn’t really hear about it from our folks until last year,” said Carol Jackson, area vice president for Morgan. “Amazon Prime membership has increased, and you add COVID on top of that. Last year we had a lot of packages. We want to be a bit more efficient this year.”

When there is a large influx deliveries, companies need to find space for those packages. To make sure there is room, Morgan has sent out emails reminding residents to pick up their packages. 

“We focused on communication to make sure that the lockers were able to receive the packages and sending out some reminders about that,” Jackson said. 

In addition, Morgan is establishing areas for overflow packages. “Not all of the drivers are willing or able to go to individual units anymore,” Jackson said. 

But Morgan also wants to create a social activity out of the pickup process. “I have a few properties that have made a fun thing out of it with an ice cream social or a lemonade stand since we’ll have increased resident activity near our rental offices,” Jackson said.

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