One of the bigger areas of research for Amazon is how they can possibly get your package to your sooner. It went from several days of shipping to offer free two-day shipping if you’re a Prime member. Now, many areas can get their stuff as early as one day. The company is pouring through money to change the way they ship, updating and improving the process.
This year, Amazon will spend around $35 billion on shipping costs. That’s about twice as much as it did two years ago. This shows just how devoted they are to improve their shipping game. They’re already the leader in this, as no other competitor is able to match the quickness in which Amazon gets packages to the customer.
The thing is, Amazon wants to stay number one. Many other companies are coming for their crown and they don’t want to fall behind. We’ve seen what happened to other once-dominate companies when they begin to get behind. It’s all about customer convenience. You’re less likely to order something online if it takes several days to get to you. You might as well head to the store and pick it up yourself.
But if you have the option of free one-day shipping, then you’re more likely to buy it on Amazon. So, while Walmart has the distribution and the massive brick-and-mortar retail game down pat, Amazon is taking a larger chunk of the holiday profits. More people than ever are shopping online for Christmas gifts for family and friends.
Amazon One-Day Holiday Shipping?
Amazon says they plan on spending an additional $1.5 billion this holiday to help do a better job of giving Prime members one-day shipping. That means you can be sure you’ll get a loved one’s gifts in time. This is hurting their profits, no doubt, but it’s only a small sliver of the capabilities they want to pursue in the future.
“When we have a full drone fleet, you’ll be able to order anything and get it in 30 minutes if you live near a hub that’s serviced by drones,” said Amazon CEO of Worldwide Consumer Jeff Wilke. “That’s only possible because of robotics.”
It appears as if Amazon has a lot of big plans for future deliveries. They wish to expand their drone program, which they’re still testing in a few markets. That means you could soon be within the 30-minute delivery window. You’d never have to go out and shop in a major retail store again. That is, unless you like that sort of thing.
