Amazon.com Inc. said its delivery locker network now includes more than 750 pickup points across 500+ U.S. college campuses, part of an expansion to bring package pickup closer to where students already spend their day.

Amazon Locker is the company’s self-service package pickup offering. By placing its kiosks near college dorms, dining halls and academic buildings, Amazon is effectively creating centralized delivery hubs in areas already packed with young online shoppers.

The company pointed to Cornell University, Georgia Tech, Michigan State University, Montana State University, Quinnipiac University and the University of Portland as examples of schools included in the latest expansion. Amazon didn’t say how many new lockers it added or when each installation went live.

The campus rollout is part of Amazon’s larger last‑mile pickup network, which it said now includes more than 25,000 package pickup locations nationwide.

Amazon ranks No. 1 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database. The market research tool tracks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales.

However, Amazon is No. 158 in Digital Commerce 360’s all-new AI Rankings. That set of rankings is available in the Top 1000 Pro with AI Database.

Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. That database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).

Why Amazon Locker’s expansion is on campuses

In its Aug. 11 announcement, Amazon said the expanded network brings package pickup “closer to where students live and study.”

One of the biggest friction points for package lockers is that customers have to make an extra trip to retrieve their orders. On a college campus, that final leg becomes something a student can do on the way to class or after grabbing lunch.

“College students are constantly on the move, and picking up a package should fit into their day — not the other way around,” said Viraj Chatterjee, vice president of Amazon Transportation, in the corporate announcement. “Expanding Amazon Locker across college and university campuses nationwide puts secure package pickup directly into the flow of campus life.”

To use Amazon’s service, students can search for nearby lockers by address or ZIP code, add one to their Amazon address book and select it at checkout. Pickup is free. When an order arrives, Amazon sends instructions to open the locker using a code, barcode or the Amazon Shopping app. Customers have three calendar days to collect their packages before Amazon automatically returns and refunds the order.

Amazon also used the announcement to highlight its discounted Prime membership for young adults. Students and adults ages 18 to 24 can subscribe for $7.49 per month or $69 per year — or half the standard Prime membership price — with verification via a .edu email or ID. The membership includes 5% cash back in select categories.

How lockers expanded to college campuses

Amazon first piloted Amazon Locker in 2011, with early deployments in the Seattle region, according to GeekWire.

By 2015, Amazon opened its first staffed campus pickup site at Purdue University, where students could retrieve orders from lockers or a staffed desk.

A year later, Amazon launched a 3,500‑square‑foot staffed pickup location at the University of California, Berkeley. It was Amazon’s fifth campus community with a staffed pickup site and the first university location with an interactive Amazon device area. Students could try Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and Fire TV devices there.

Over time, standalone and self-service lockers appear to have become more common. In 2022, Amazon installed seven parcel kiosks near residence halls at Duke University. Earlier this year, Western Washington University added two Amazon Hub lockers and said more were on the way.

What data says about pickup locker demand

Amazon doesn’t publicly break out college‑specific locker usage. But older internal research shows the company was already dealing with capacity constraints years ago.

A 2024 peer-reviewed study found that its early system often allocated too much space to standard‑delivery orders, leaving less room in lockers for faster shipping orders. In 2017, 20% of Amazon Locker requests were rejected. Up to 35% of those rejections were unnecessary because space was actually available, the study found.

To help fix that, Amazon built a system that used machine learning to forecast demand and estimate how long packages would remain in Lockers. An optimization model then reserved space based on shipping speed. During the 2018 holiday season, the system increased worldwide Locker throughput 9% year over year, the researchers found. This allowed Amazon to accept millions of additional Locker requests that otherwise would have been rejected.

Campus evidence points to some operational savings as well. At Boston College, one Amazon Locker handled about 200 deliveries per month during its first three months, bypassing the mailroom entirely. Staff didn’t have to receive, sort or distribute those packages.

Outside of higher ed, independent research shows similar benefits. A 2023 University of Washington field study found that couriers spent 50% to 60% less time inside a Seattle apartment building after a common‑carrier locker was installed. The building manager also estimated that package‑related work declined by 90%.

Still, efficiency doesn’t guarantee adoption. A 2021 U.S. Department of Transportation‑sponsored review noted that locker and collection‑point usage generally hovers around 10% to 20%, even in countries with established locker programs. The review cited earlier research identifying a major barrier: Consumers must complete the final leg of the trip themselves. College campuses can reduce that inconvenience by putting lockers along routes students already travel.

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