Volvo introduces “Roam Delivery:” A service allowing packages to now be delivered to your car instead of being missed at your home.

It’s happened to everyone: rescheduling an important meeting at work to make sure you can sign for an important package coming home, or missing the coveted Christmas present you bought for your parents because you weren’t home when it was delivered. Volvo has found a way to meet the marketing demand of the masses by introducing “Roam Delivery.”

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFKoPOhSI6A]

How Roam Delivery works is like this: Delivery people can drop off in-car packages with a digital key that will be activated once the delivery is accepted and deactivate as soon as the car’s locked again. With a smartphone app, users can be updated on the status of the delivery in real-time. Some people have been skeptical of letting strangers have access to their cars, however Volvo indicated that their trial results have gained a 92% approval rating among participants who tested this feature. As predicted, many of these participants found this much more convenient than receiving a package at home.

According to The Car Connection, this technology has been around for awhile, but this is the first time that anyone has put this idea into fruition. Here are a few other services Volvo offers through this technology: 

Something that has been reiterated over and over again in my communications classes is that the beginning of any idea or plan should be research. Volvo says that they created Roam Delivery because up to 60% of online shoppers have problems receiving the goods they’ve ordered. This proves the point that every professor I’ve had has tried to make: without research you don’t know the problem.

The idea of something like Roam Delivery is a new one, but has solved a problem that has been around for years. Everyone knows how inconvenient shipping can be but no one has ever found a way to solve the problem. The bottom line for communications professionals to take away is that clients’ needs can be discovered through research, and from our research we can create a product.