Recently Amazon announced that it is expanding its Key by Amazon delivery service to allow delivery people to enter customers’ garages to leave groceries ordered from Fresh and Whole Foods. It’s likely Walmart’s pilot program of a similar service in January of this year prompted Amazon to launch its service to more than 5,000 cities across the US.

Until the expansion was announced, only Amazon Prime members in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Seattle could get deliveries dropped off in their garages as part of a pilot program started in November 2020. Key by Amazon’s In-Garage Grocery Delivery requires a compatible smart garage door opener or Chamberlain’s myQ Smart Garage Hub and a camera. Customers connect the myQ app with Key to specify in-garage delivery.

The question is, will consumers opt for a stranger to come into their garage to drop off groceries and packages. We asked consumers with one or more smart home devices just this question on our Smart Home Survey a little more than a year ago and the response was positive. See Smart Home Survey - Package Delivery - April 2020.

In fact, consumers found in-garage delivery more appealing than in-home delivery.

At this point in time Amazon is only expanding In-Garage Grocery Delivery in the US, but as can be seen from the survey results, more than half of consumers in the UK and Germany with smart homes and garages would find in-garage delivery extremely or very appealing. We believe Amazon’s new initiative will be well-received and it will be interesting to see if Amazon adapts it for other countries.