Help Your Students Thrive: Install Lockers for Fall 2025

With students heading home for the summer, now is the optimal time to prepare for the back-to-school package onslaught. Research shows students’ online shopping surges 1-2 weeks before school starts, with 48% of students purchasing their final items during this critical period.¹ By installing smart lockers this summer, you can prevent package pileups before, during, and after move-in day, ensuring a smoother experience for everyone when students return to campus.

Convenience: the Secret to Successfully Serving Students

Generation Z is the current driving force in the student resident market. According to Zillow, Zoomers represent 47% of recent U.S. renters and comprise 25% of all U.S. renters.² Most importantly, this generation has always valued convenience: from having the internet at their fingertips to enjoying same-day delivery.

Gen Z’s digital native status means they demand convenience from every aspect of their lives – including their student living experience. Smart lockers help you deliver on this important expectation. Mailrooms and leasing offices can’t match every student’s schedule, but smart lockers can. They can also eliminate the need for students to endure long pickup lines, allowing for package collection in less than 30 seconds.

Shenandoah University, a private, nationally recognized, 4-year university located in Winchester, Virginia, discovered this benefit very quickly. Pam Burke, Director of Auxiliary Services at the university, was shocked by the positive student reaction to Parcel Pending by Quadient lockers on-campus: “Typically, students only contact me if they want to complain about something. But I had two students come and find me in my office recently and tell me how much they absolutely love using the lockers, which was a really pleasant surprise.”

Lockers Boost Operational Efficiency for Staff

A recent Spaces4Learning survey of higher education operations professionals revealed staffing as the top challenge in managing campus mail and packages. More than a third of respondents (36%) cited “too few staff” as their most pressing mailroom issue. However, when considering future parcel volume increases, opinions were divided: while 26% planned to add personnel, a substantial 72% expected to maintain current staffing levels despite growing delivery demands.³

Implementing smart lockers allows many higher education institutions to enhance the student experience while also allowing their teams to reallocate resources to higher-value responsibilities, like supporting student inquiries. Some solutions, like Parcel Pending’s rear-loading lockers can give institutions an even greater efficiency boost, allowing packages to be simultaneously loaded into the lockers using the rear doors while students collect packages from the front.

Smart lockers also provide a secure and efficient package management solution for off-campus housing operators. Lindsey Bright, Vice President of Operations at Subtext, which owns and operates student housing in St. Louis, describes its approach: “We’ve implemented a hybrid system combining a moderate number of lockers with a spacious package room, all integrated through a single software platform to ensure consistent convenience for residents. This design includes standard refrigerators for perishable deliveries and represents a long-term solution we expect to maintain for years.”

Deliver MORE than Just Packages

Smart parcel lockers can help you deliver more than just packages for your students, staff, and faculty. Parcel Pending’s Campus Hub™ solution helps transform university logistics by establishing a comprehensive distribution network where smart lockers serve as exchange points for all types of items across the entire campus.

This solution integrates Quadient’s Web Tracking System (WTS), or your school’s existing tracking platform, with our smart parcel lockers to create complete chain-of-custody tracking for all items flowing through the system. This innovation addresses two critical challenges facing higher education: maximizing efficiency with limited staff and resources, while generating additional revenue streams on campus.

Valencia College in Florida serves as an excellent example of how a Campus Hub positively impacts campus life. Initially introduced during the pandemic as a bookstore solution, the school’s VC Vault network has evolved to serve multiple facets of the campus, including the college library and – eventually – its campus food pantry. As Frankie Ortiz, Assistant Director of Auxiliary Services at Valencia College, highlights: “Students don’t have to work around our schedules because their time is important as well.”

Campus Hub’s distinctive capabilities include:

• End-to-end tracking for all campus deliveries and exchanges, including items requiring special handling
• Dual-purpose lockers supporting both pickup and return of parcels and various assets.
• Integrated mail distribution on a unified communication platform
• Seamless integration with existing campus software, enabling easy adoption across various departments, including the library, bookstore, IT, dining services, and more
• Consistent collection and return processes for users regardless of the specific use case, facilitating adoption campus-wide

Your Students Deserve More: How Parcel Pending Delivers

Today’s digital-native students expect convenience at every turn, making smart lockers essential infrastructure to navigate the school year rather than a luxury amenity. These systems not only enhance the student experience with 24/7 package access but also solve critical staffing challenges.

However, even as package volumes continue to surge, we understand that finding room for infrastructure investments may feel challenging in today’s uncertain funding climate. That’s why Parcel Pending offers flexible financing solutions specifically designed to meet the needs of student residents and your budget. From leasing options to subscription packages and phased implementation plans, our team will partner with you to find a financially sustainable path toward solving your package and asset management challenges.

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Ready to help your students thrive in the new academic year? Speak with a Parcel Pending representative today to find out how we can help you lock in your package management solution ahead of the fall semester.

Sources:

1. Margalit, Lila. The Consumer Habits of College Students. www.placer.ai. October 3, 2023. https://www.placer.ai/anchor/articles/the-consumer-habits-of-college-students
2. Flint, Jessica. What Do Gen Z Renters Want? Amenities, Aesthetics and Their Own Mini Universe. www.wsj.com. May 1, 2025. https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/luxury-homes/gen-z-renters-8f411113
3. Spaces4Learning & Parcel Pending by Quadient. Campus Mailroom Operations: A Nexus of the Student Experience. www.parcelpending.com. May 31, 2024. https://www.parcelpending.com/en-us/resources/empower-your-campus-mailroom-meeting-the-evolving-needs-of-todays-students/