As more Americans move to online shopping, the concurrent rise of porch piracy has yielded depressing statistics:

- 36% of online shoppers have had a delivered package stolen

- 1.7 million packages are stolen or go missing every day

- 74% of packages are stolen from homes during the day when homeowners are at work

Incomplete solutions:

Doorbell cameras. They're rising in popularity, but recording a thief, then going through police channels to track them down, doesn't solve the problem of not having the packages go missing in the first place.

Amazon lockers. Prevents theft, but being in located in shopping venues, removes the convenience of home delivery.

The object that's accordingly rising in popularity: Porch lockers.

This emerging product category aims to provide a porch-based receptacle that a delivery person can place objects into, but that only the owner can unlock (theoretically). The delivery person inserts packages through a one-way mailbox-style mechanism, or in the case of keypad models, via a code that the owner provides them. The owner unlocks the box via a built-in keyed lock, a self-provided padlock or, for IOT idIOTs, a smartphone app.

Yale Smart Delivery Box

Yale Smart Delivery Box

Because these objects have no clear precedent, it's been up to individual designers to decide what they should look like, and thus far the results aren't great. One approach is to make them resemble wooden planters, but to render them in resin for all-weather durability.

Yale Smart Delivery Box

Yale Smart Delivery Box

Yale Smart Delivery Box

Keter Delivery Box

Keter Delivery Box

Keter Delivery Box Keter Delivery Box

Keter Delivery Box

To prevent the entire locker from being taken by a thief with a handtruck, the manufacturers suggest screwing/anchoring them to the porch from within, tethering them to something else with a cable or, get this, filling the bottom compartment with sand to make it heavier.

Another design approach has been to go with metal and make them look more like conventional package-drop mailboxes.

Architectural Mailboxes 6900B

Architectural Mailboxes 6900B

Architectural Mailboxes 6900B

Architectural Mailboxes 6900B

Yet another approach has been to go full modernist.

Deposit Vault DVCS0020

Deposit Vault DVCS0020

A Google search will turn up dozens of models, but you'll find there isn't a lot of design variance, and there's currently no clear winner on the market, no knockout model that everyone lusts after. So I think there's a real opportunity here for an entrepreneurial designer or firm to come up with the Yeti of this space. At the very least, it ought make a good assignment for an ID class.