Amazon’s Grand Plan
As if it weren’t already dominating online selling news, Amazon has a new wrinkle in its quest to remain on top. Whether you are or are not a third-party seller on the massive platform, you would benefit by paying close attention to its movements.
Most consumers (and even merchants) are preoccupied with the topic of changing tariff policy decisions. But in the back of their minds is a feature that Amazon helped escalate from its inception. Delivery times are key, especially in a climate of last-minute shopping. The conventional two-day fulfillment for Amazon’s Prime members has met with some snags, as customers report frequent delays. On the other hand, a lot of orders to the Seattle-based giant are inching closer and closer to next-day delivery.
Confronting the common bruise dealt by tariffs, Amazon has decided to focus on a faster and more broad approach to moving orders from warehouse to end point, even in rural areas. Look at the United States Post Office. Long considered an irreplaceable service for its reach into remote, rural locations, it was a substantial choice of shipping for Amazon itself. As increasing expediency led to more proprietary Amazon drivers, that eased a bit.
Though USPS is still a backstop for packages that cannot be handled by Amazon drivers at the end of the day will still hand off packages to the post office. Their agreement is detailed and really quite fascinating with respect to contractual issues.
Seeking even better performance, Amazon is preparing to drop a lot of cash into an improved fulfillment strategy. Its formal statement to media indicates the company will invest enough to reach “tens of millions of customers” with speedy delivery in rural areas, which is good news for customers who don’t live in urban centers or the suburbs.
The numbers
According to the company, Amazon plans to target more than 4 thousand more remote delivery areas, including cities, towns, and rural destinations off the beaten path. Customers and businesses there are accustomed to limited access when it comes to shopping and other amenities, but they are in for a treat.
A planned tripling of delivery to these areas seems ambitious, but face it: This is Amazon, and there aren’t many goals they can’t accomplish.
To do this, they will look at positioning “hubs” where individual customers can travel smaller distances to a retail or other building and collect their purchases. This would also aid Amazon drivers who may live near there and can concentrate on out-of-the-way areas, facilitate an efficient workday.
It’s no surprise that to put this plan into motion, Amazon will lean heavily on advanced machine-learning algorithms to move things along, and to develop smart strategies to determine what type of inventory is most popular in these spaces.
The takeaway here is that the most prolific online seller is not going away any time soon. Amazon says to look for an increase in staffing, as opposed to the cuts that many associate with an enhanced reliance on technology.
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash