Report: Amazon is teaming up with smartlock company August and garage-access startup Garageio to provide in-home package deliveries
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch :
Context & Ripple Effects
This 2016 report is the seed of what became Amazon Key: Amazon pairing its delivery network with third-party home-access hardware from August and Garageio so couriers can leave packages inside rather than on the porch. At the time, no major retailer had productized courier entry into private homes.
First-order effects
- Amazon gains a way to complete last-mile drops without the customer present, converting failed-delivery redeliveries into completed ones.
- August and Garageio get validation as logistics infrastructure — their locks are now the trust layer for an e-commerce giant's couriers.
Second-order effects
- Walmart answers within a year by partnering with the same lock maker, testing in-home package and grocery delivery through its own August tie-up in Silicon Valley.
- Amazon's comfort with partner hardware proves short-lived: it reportedly offered $100M for August Home, was rebuffed, and pivoted to building Amazon Key itself while August sold to Assa Abloy for $150M (the acquisition attempt).
Third-order effects
- Home-access hardware is consolidating around whoever controls the delivery relationship — Amazon ended up owning the stack via Key, including garage delivery across 13 more cities (in-garage expansion) and Hub lockers for customers who won't grant door access (over 500,000 locker users).
- If the pattern holds, the front door becomes contested retail infrastructure, with retailers competing to be the trusted party inside the home rather than at the doorstep.
The trend: Last-mile delivery is moving from the doorstep into the home itself, with retailers racing to control the smart-lock layer that makes interior drops possible.