The daily delivery rate of the world’s largest e-commerce company has been upgraded amid fierce competition over shopping delivery in the U.S.
Amazon announced on the 29th (local time) that approximately 60% of products ordered through its membership Prime in 60 large cities in the U.S. arrived on the same day or the next day in the first quarter.
This is an increase of 10 percentage points from about 50% in the second quarter of last year, which means that Amazon’s “one-day delivery” is expanding faster and faster.
Amazon has poured enormous funds and resources into reducing delivery times from two days to less than one day as competition for delivery speeds intensifies.
To this end, the warehouse and delivery network was reorganized to move away from the method concentrated in one warehouse to a system with eight base warehouses nationwide, and since 2019, it has established more than 55 same-day delivery centers across the country, mainly in large cities.
The center, which is the size of 26 soccer fields, selects and stores the best-selling products in each city.
Amazon plans to double its same-day delivery facilities in the U.S. in the next few years to make same-day and next-day delivery standard.
“As we quickly deliver orders to our customers, they choose Amazon for their shopping,” CEO Andy Jassie wrote in a letter to shareholders earlier this month. “Our daily necessities business is up more than 20% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of last year. It shows how fast our daily necessities business is growing.”
As competition for fast delivery between companies intensified, Amazon’s rival Walmart launched a service that uses drones to deliver goods within 30 minutes, and Target launched a new program last month that offers same-day delivery within an hour on orders over $35.
The more competitors there are, the higher the services are produced to attract people. But the quality can go down in order to attract people. Shipping companies will have to make an effort to maintain high quality.
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
