Over 30 college campuses now have purpose built convenient Amazon Pickup Points.

Brands whose orders are Fulfilled by Amazon can benefit from 2-day delivery direct to college campuses, giving them a real opportunity to infiltrate the US college community.

It’s hard to deny Amazon’s impressive grip over the retail sector in the United States. Growing from an online bookstore into a world-spanning tech behemoth, the company has recently been making waves amongst college students. Their new Pickup Lockers have been installed on over 30 major college campuses, allowing students to pick up their orders within 2 days of ordering them.

Amazon is known for constantly seeking new ways to entice people online and to purchase their goods from home, rather than visiting a traditional ‘brick and mortar’ store. Despite the online retail sector growing year-on-year, consumers are still uneasy about abandoning traditional shopping habits with 64% of consumers reporting that they prefer to shop from physical stores rather than online ones.

In an attempt to start reshaping the way Americans shop, Amazon began rolling out physical stores in 2015; beginning with the opening of their bookstore in Seattle which brought their low prices and comparisons from the online sphere into reality. Although there are now 13 Amazon bookstores open in the US (as well as one checkout-less supermarket) the company is now looking to improve the practicality of its online shopping service with the roll-out of Campus Pick-up Points.

With 30 major colleges and universities and growing, Amazon Campus Pick-Up Points is shopping online a much more practical solution for students that might have otherwise have difficulty in getting packages delivered to their dorms.

Pickup locations work using a simple locker system. The customer orders their product through the website (or using the Amazon app) and selects their local Pickup location as their delivery address. The product is then shipped by Amazon to the Pickup Point within two days of the order. The customer is notified when their package is ready for pickup and they head to the Pickup location, scan a barcode on their phone and collect their item from the locker.

Taking into consideration their shopping habits and budgets, college students are an ideal demographic for Amazon. Each year they have an exhaustive shopping list of educational materials and supplies, as well as dorm and apartment living necessities to purchase. Not to mention the numerous purchases that they will make throughout the college year including clothes, electronics accessories and other small items. They also highly value immediacy and this new system offers that in abundance.

Take the back-to-college shopping season, for instance. During this period college students are returning to campus and inevitably spend thousands of dollars over a wide range of product categories. Freshmen needing to stock up on supplies tend to spend more, with the average individual spend estimated at around $1,452. Whilst just over 20% of this money is spent on bulkier items like household appliances and dorm furniture, the rest is split over college supplies such as books, stationery and electronic gadgets: all items that can be easily transported and supplied by Amazon.

Brands selling everything from beauty to skincare and hair products to food, clothing and electronics can take advantage of Amazon’s increased presence on these 30 campuses by launching an on-campus marketing campaign, promoting the ease of delivering their products to the new Pickup locations.

Our college street teams can saturate each campus with teams of brand ambassadors, interacting with your college audience while distributing promotional materials spreading the word about your range of products. To reach the highly-sought after freshman, we can promote your brand through dorm-room door hangers with a check-list detailing the ‘Back-to-College’ essentials featuring your products, all of which can be purchased through Amazon with just a few clicks.

Amazon is eager to normalize this form of shopping to the current generation of college students. Whilst students are enrolled at college they can take advantage of Amazon’s Prime service for the discounted price of $50 giving them access to Free One Day Delivery as well as the company’s TV and music streaming services. Looking further into the future of ‘impulse shopping’, Amazon has recently introduced its Instant Pickup service to six campuses, allowing students to order items such as snacks and drinks through the app which can then be picked up from a locker just 2 minutes after the order is made.

This is certainly another brave new step into the future of retail for the global e-commerce company, but there’s no reason why your brand can’t benefit from these innovations.

Check the list below to see where Amazon is currently operating its Pickup service and give us a call on (212) 386-7617 or send us an email to info@campussolutionsinc.com to see how we could help you get your brand noticed on campus and break you into the American college experience.

Bryan Carbone

Bryan Carbone has over 20 years experience in college media, advertising and Out-of-Home media. Having established one of the country’s most innovative college marketing agencies in the U.S., working with more than 4,000 universities, Bryan has developed college targeted campaigns for Fortune 500 companies such as Clinique, P&G, Bare Minerals, Luxottica, as well as The USMC and Peace Corps and many more.