Smart Lockers – Amazon Hub, USPS Locker & Temperature Controlled Locker

By | April 3, 2024
Electronic lockers USPS Amazon

Parcel, Food Smart Lockers

Updated August 31, 2025 — Lockers for parcel pickup and vending dispensing are surging in popularity.  Apartment complexes and more. Amazon is across the 7-Eleven chain.  One of the new ideas are custom solar-powered pickup lockers for residential consumers. Porch pirates are just one factor.

We took a look at the space recently.  What drove us to do that was identifying out-of-compliance Braille stickers being used in California (see related post on Braille decals)

We have a photo gallery of lockers you can view.

If you are interested in lockers and customized lockers, email [email protected]

Here is a template for lockers which is useful.  It appears to be generated from Amazon-like customer. I think we can say that…Zhilai Locker hardware requirement

Background

It is no surprise that currently, electronic lockers are made in China. In the case regarding Braille, rather than try to contact someone at Amazon or USPS, we instead went down the food chain. There are US companies that sell and support those to Amazon, and in turn, they buy those lockers from China.

We contacted the original Chinese point and they were nice enough to relay the information to Amazon and USPS. They thanked us, as did Amazon, for bringing it to their attention.

One interesting note is that the leading Amazon supplier no longer ships from China.  The political complications with the U.S. have changed that, and now shipping is from Vietnam.

Example Deployer smartecarte

  • 3400 locations
  • 53,000 worldwide
  • Cashless program
  • Season pass holders
  • Purchase locker entitlement from POS to ticketing
  • API communications
  • Integrate into any park media (barcode, QR code, RFID) or standalone system
  • Onsite, virtual machine, or remote-hosted secure server
  • Real-time reporting for usage and revenue by hour
  • Remote maintenance, management, and monitoring
  • Continual software upgrades and development
  • Locker hopping
  • Link to smartecarte lockers
  • Here is PDF of Food Locker, Vending and Refridgeration
  • Food Locker, Vending Machine, Refrigeration Locker and Freezing Locker-01-0619 ENG

USPS Parcel Locker for Pickup

Consumers are now accustomed to the convenience of online shopping and ordering products anytime and anywhere. They have similar expectations in how they receive their packages to best  accommodate the varying needs of their lifestyle:

  • Flexibility: Anytime, Anywhere
  • Convenience: Don’t want to wait at home or in a line for pickup.
  • Privacy: Don’t want to share personal information such as their home address.
  • Security: Peace of mind that their package is safe and secure until they are ready for it.

The USPS Smart Lockers provide recipients of packages with a free, out-of-home alternative to receive
their high-value items in a safe, secure, and convenient way.

The Postal Service has designed a simple process that enables Shippers and Shipping Partners to present

USPS® Smart Lockers (Lockers) as an alternate delivery option for their package recipients. This process allows Shippers to retain complete control over the customer experience they provide, while adding value to their business. Benefits include:

  • Alternative delivery options at checkout.
  • Improved first-time delivery success rate.
  • Solves for bad delivery/inaccessible addresses.
  • Reduced returns/replacements (safe/secure delivery).
  • Simplified package returns (offers a secure drop-off option).
  • USPS Customer manual

Amazon Hub Lockers

Amazon has an extensive network of pickup locations called Amazon Hub Lockers. These secure, self-serve kiosks provide a convenient solution for customers to collect their Amazon packages. Here are some key facts about Amazon Lockers:

  • Number of Locations: Amazon has over 41,000 locker locations across the United States, making it easy for customers to retrieve their orders
  • Coverage: These lockers are present in 900+ cities throughout North America
  • Recent Installations: In 2021 alone, Amazon added over 1,800 new locker locations
  • Projected Growth: The company aims to expand its locker program and is projected to reach 60,000 locker sites by 2023
  • These lockers come in different types, including those with touch screens and barcode scanners, as well as others that require the Amazon Shopping App and Bluetooth activation on your smartphone
  • They offer various accessibility features, such as talking lockers, high-contrast touchscreen text, and customizable slot preferences

So, whether you’re near a Whole Foods, a 7-Eleven, or another popular location, chances are you’ll find an Amazon Locker nearby

Locker Use Cases

Here are the use cases every smart locker could serve:

1. Delivering parcels for customer pickup
2. Parcel returns drop-off with pre-labeled package — Return Lockers such as Amazon at Whole Foods
3. C2C locker-to-locker sending
4. Missed delivery self-collection
5. Direct ship-to-locker at checkout
6. Addressless delivery for travelers or students
7. Subscription box pickup
8. Marketplace seller drop-off for buyer pickup
9. Courier-to-courier relay point or route handover
10. Micro hub staging before foot or bike routes
11. Age-verified deliveries with ID check
12. Duty or COD payment on pickup
13. High value item release with dual codes
14. Oversized compartment pickup
15. Label-less returns using QR code
16. Warranty repair intake for electronics
17. Device trade-in drop-off
18. RMA quarantine with chain-of-custody
19. Reusable packaging return
20. Rental gear return – tools, cameras, sports gear
21. Apparel size exchange returns
22. Try-before-you-buy returns
23. E-waste and electronics recycling drop-off
24. BOPIL – buy online, pick up in locker after hours
25. Buy in store, pick up later from parking lot or lobby locker
26. Multitenant mall lockers serving several stores
27. Store returns drop to bypass service desk queues
28. Service desk overflow staging in lockers
29. Gift pickup with timed release
30. Samples or demo unit pickup
31. Grocery pickup – ambient goods
32. Grocery pickup – chilled or frozen goods
33. Meal kit pickup
34. Restaurant takeout pickup
35. Pharmacy prescription pickup
36. Medical device rental pickup and return
37. Lab sample drop for courier collection
38. Apartment parcel lockers in lobbies
39. Dry cleaning and laundry pickup and drop
40. Shoe repair and tailoring pickup
41. Community tool library pickup
42. Student housing parcel lockers
43. University course pack distribution
44. Library holds pickup and returns
45. Student electronics loaner pickup
46. Device loaner pool management for staff
47. Secure mobile phone lockup in clean rooms
48. Field technician spare parts pickup near job site
49. Construction site tool crib with audit trail
50. Battery swap for scanners and handheld devices

Smart Lockers Gallery

We keep a photo gallery of smart locker examples (51) on Pinterest — here is partial snapshot of latest.
Smart locker examples pinterest august 31, 2025

Smart locker examples pinterest august 31, 2025

What’s Up Next? Bonus RFID Self Checkout SCO machines

Automated retail is evolving both for customers and for employees.  Just last week Amazon decided to shut down its “Just Walk Out” concept stores. From dazzled to fizzled in four years. And they turned out NOT to be so non-reliant on humans…

Another growing area is RFID and self-checkout though.  We spoke with the folks at Fujitsu and they have several new models that resemble the “kitchensink” configuration. You put your items in a basket basically and let them be scanned.

Several customized versions of this are cropping up.  Initial origin is South Africa actually. Many companies involved in this sort of automated self-checkout via RFID

And then there is Qualcomm — How integrated RFID enhances handheld devices with Qualcomm Dragonwing Q-6690

Here is google query for articles or images

https://www.google.com/search?q=uniqlo+self+checkout

FOR GOOD MEASURE

We reviewed serving robot.

our robots is an open platform that customers can develop and integrated into his own system. Secondly, our robot comes with dynamic ads while working, and customer can easily upload and change ads via phone. Thirdly, we have a robot management app for end user and a remote maintenance and control platform for distributors help with the after sales support.”

For reference the MSRP is around $15K for Pro version. Approximately 700 deployed

restaurant robot

Robot Restaurant

More Lockers Links

Author: Staff Writer

Craig Keefner -- With over 40 years in the industry and technology, Craig is widely considered to be an expert in the field. Major early career kiosk projects include Verizon Bill Pay kiosk and hundreds of others. Craig helped start kioskmarketplace and formed the KMA. Note the point of view here is not necessarily the stance of the Kiosk Association or kma.global