Luxer One President Josh Middlebrooks recently joined Rodney Apple and Mike Ogle on the Supply Chain Careers Podcast, thanks to Supply Chain Management. The outcome was a discussion of an emerging challenge in modern logistics: the final 100 feet of delivery.
While the supply chain industry has spent years optimizing warehouse operations and the last mile of delivery, the conversation is now shifting to what happens after the carrier arrives. As e-commerce continues to grow, apartments, offices, universities, and other large properties, are becoming a new operational frontier for logistics.
From Last Mile to Final 100 Feet
Many are familiar with the concept of the last mile delivery, which refers to the transportation of goods from distribution centers to the customer’s location. But as delivery volumes have exploded, another challenge has emerged beyond that final stop. The final 100 feet refers to the process of managing packages once they reach their destination building.
Years ago, this stage of delivery was relatively simple. A property manager might receive a few packages per day and hand them directly to residents when they arrived to pick them up. But the rapid growth of e-commerce quickly overwhelmed that model.
Instead of a handful of deliveries, apartment communities and other large buildings began receiving dozens, sometimes hundreds, of packages daily. Staff suddenly found themselves responsible for managing a steady flow of deliveries, tracking packages, and coordinating pickups. In many cases, buildings were effectively operating a small distribution center inside the property without the tools designed to handle that level of activity.
A Growing Operational Challenge
The scale of modern delivery volumes has made package management a serious operational issue for many properties. Today, Luxer One systems:- process over 100 million deliveries each year
- are in about 13,000 multifamily communities
- serve around 4 million active users.
That means more than 1% of the U.S. population interacts with a Luxer One system, and over 1% of Amazon deliveries ultimately end up in Luxer One smart lockers. These numbers highlight how significant the final stage of delivery has become. As more goods move through e-commerce channels, the supply chain is extending deeper into residential communities and commercial buildings. The infrastructure inside those spaces now plays a critical role in completing the delivery experience.
“Supply Chain on the Edge”
Josh Middlebrooks described this shift as “supply chain on the edge.”
Historically, logistics innovation focused on centralized operations like warehouses and distribution centers. Today, however, supply chains are moving closer to the customer. Delivery infrastructure is now being built into the environments where people live, work, and study. Buildings must manage carrier access, package storage, secure retrieval, and customer notifications. These processes increasingly resemble the workflows traditionally associated with logistics facilities, only on a smaller scale and embedded within everyday environments.
Technology and the Future of Delivery
As logistics moves closer to the customer, technology will play an important role in enabling efficient operations at the building level. Many of the technologies receiving attention today, such as AI, robotics, and automation, have long been used within supply chain environments. Tools like advanced warehouse management systems and digital modeling have helped optimize logistics operations for years.
The difference now is that these capabilities are extending beyond distribution centers into decentralized locations like residential properties and campuses. At the same time, new innovations are emerging to support workers and operations, from automated inventory tracking to AI-assisted decision making and technologies designed to improve safety and efficiency.
Rather than replacing workers, these tools are increasingly designed to help people operate more effectively in complex logistics environments.
A New Frontier for Supply Chain Innovation
The final 100 feet of logistics is still a relatively new concept within the industry, which means many of the solutions and best practices are still being developed. For supply chain professionals, this creates a unique opportunity. As delivery volumes continue to grow, the need for systems that manage packages inside buildings will only become more important.
What once happened exclusively in distribution centers is now happening inside apartment communities, offices, and campuses. And as the supply chain continues moving closer to the customer, the final 100 feet may become one of the most important areas of logistics innovation in the years ahead.
