Chicago—Oct. 27, 2015—Doorman, a company tackling the problem of missed deliveries by allowing consumers to schedule their own deliveries as late as midnight, has now gone live in Chicago and is preparing to soon launch in New York. The expansion comes on the heels of Doorman’s seed funding round from earlier this summer, which saw the company adding $1.5 million to its coffers in order to grow its business.
The idea Doorman wants to solve is fairly common—people are increasingly shopping online, but deliveries, including Amazon Prime’s two-day delivery option, still sees packages arriving at various hours of the day. In some cases, packages are left on doorsteps where they could be stolen or, other times, they’re held until someone can sign, such as in the case of high-value electronics or wine. Some consumers work around this problem by having things they buy online sent to them at the office, but this isn’t a good solution for large items that later have to fit in car trunks, or be carried on bikes or public transport.
Instead of taking delivery whenever the shipper, like UPS or FedEx, sees fit, Doorman users provide an online retailer with their personal Doorman address (a location in the Doorman warehouse). The company then signs for you and holds the package until you’re ready to receive it. Users are alerted through a push notification in the Doorman app and can schedule their delivery from 6 p.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
The service more recently teamed up with August Smart Lock, a connected door lock that users can control through their phone, allowing Doorman customers to schedule deliveries, then allow the Doorman agent one-time, temporary access to their home so they can place their package inside.
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