Amazon Doubling Same-Day Delivery to Address Need for Speed

Amazon will double its same-day delivery centers to hold onto its eCommerce dominance.

That expansion will happen “in the coming years,” Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, wrote on the company’s blog Monday (July 31), as consumers continue to demand quicker deliveries.

“Across the top 60 largest U.S. metro areas, more than half of Prime member orders arrived the same or next day,” Herrington said.

“So far this year, we’ve delivered more than 1.8 billion units to U.S. Prime members the same or next day—nearly four times what we delivered at those speeds by this point in 2019.”

Herrington’s pledge to expand Amazon’s delivery service follows other recent efforts by the company on that front. For example, the retail goliath has begun recruiting small businesses to assist in its last-mile delivery work.

That project, happening in 23 states, will tap businesses like clothing stores, bodegas and florists to handle last-mile delivery.

As noted here on numerous occasions, Amazon routinely leads rival Walmart in the eCommerce space. For example, when the two companies recently had overlapping sales events — Prime Day for Amazon happening amid Walmart’s Walmart+ Week — with twice as many Prime members making purchases during the Prime Day sales event as Walmart+ shoppers did during Walmart+ Week.

“Even though both events took place on overlapping days in mid-July 2023, survey data reveals that many consumers were not aware of Walmart+ Week at all,” PYMNTS wrote.

In addition, PYMNTS data shows that participation in Prime Day grew to a larger extent than Walmart+ Week, even as Walmart gave the general public access to Walmart+ Week this year. While 40% of consumers made purchases on Amazon Prime Day, 20% did so during Walmart+ Week.

“In the final analysis, Amazon came out of 2023 summer sales events stronger, having captured more low- and high-income shoppers, had more engaged members, and was perceived as offering better deals,” PYMNTS wrote.

However, that report continued, Walmart+ Week shoppers still spend nearly double the amount of Amazon Prime customers, “which is a dynamic Walmart can build on.”

Walmart has been building on its fulfillment capabilities recently by adding more automation, as reported here last week.

The company plans to have 100 warehouses with automated services in the years ahead, which gives it the potential to handle twice as many boxes per facility.