Amazon Achieved Its 'Fastest Prime Speeds Ever' Last Quarter (techcrunch.com) 45
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Amazon achieved its "fastest Prime speeds ever" last quarter, the online retail giant announced on Monday. The company says it has delivered more than 1.8 billion units to U.S. Prime members so far this year, nearly four times what it delivered at those speeds by this point in 2019. Across the top 60 largest U.S. metro areas, more than half of Prime member orders arrived the same or next day. Same-day delivery is currently available on millions of items for customers across more than 90 U.S. metro areas, and Amazon plans to double the number of delivery sites in the coming years.
Amazon notes that the average time from picking a customer's items to positioning the customer's package on the outbound dock is 11 minutes in same-day facilities, more than an hour faster than its traditional fulfillment centers. For context, same-day facilities are stocked with what customers in those areas are purchasing, while traditional facilities are larger and include a more vast assortment of items. "As we make these changes, we are seeing that they have the added benefit of reducing costs, too," Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, wrote in a blog post. "Regionalizing our network reduces miles traveled and handoffs. Since the beginning of this year alone, the distance between our sites and the customer decreased by 15%, with 12% fewer touchpoints within our middle mile network. Improved product placement gets items even closer to customers, making our delivery system more efficient. And our Same-Day Delivery network is not only our fastest way to get products to customers, it is also one of our lowest cost ways."
Amazon notes that the average time from picking a customer's items to positioning the customer's package on the outbound dock is 11 minutes in same-day facilities, more than an hour faster than its traditional fulfillment centers. For context, same-day facilities are stocked with what customers in those areas are purchasing, while traditional facilities are larger and include a more vast assortment of items. "As we make these changes, we are seeing that they have the added benefit of reducing costs, too," Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, wrote in a blog post. "Regionalizing our network reduces miles traveled and handoffs. Since the beginning of this year alone, the distance between our sites and the customer decreased by 15%, with 12% fewer touchpoints within our middle mile network. Improved product placement gets items even closer to customers, making our delivery system more efficient. And our Same-Day Delivery network is not only our fastest way to get products to customers, it is also one of our lowest cost ways."
I still don't understand why people want this (Score:2)
Thinking of people who deem it necessary to pay extra for "same day delivery", I wonder how long they could survive in ab
Re:I still don't understand why people want this (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm with you on this. Amazon tried to sell me on Prime a few years back by saying that I would have saved something like $100 on shipping costs in the last year alone, had I merely been with Prime. That number seemed crazy to me, given that it's our habit to add things to the cart for days or weeks until we have enough to clear the minimum value for free shipping.
Turns out, they lied. We had only spent $6 on shipping in the previous calendar year, not $100. Their $100 number was based on the false assumption that I separately paid for shipping on everything, but I didn't.
Even when we eventually did sign up to Prime (to get a significant Prime Day discount on an item), we told them to ship everything to us slower in exchange for $1 credits for other Amazon services. We'd enjoy a free rental every few weeks. It wasn't enough to justify keeping Prime once the subscription expired, but that was the only benefit we really saw with it otherwise. We tried getting into a few of their shows and other Prime Video exclusives, but found that we either had no interest or bounced off them after giving them a fair shot (I recognize that reasonable minds will differ, so I'm not suggesting it's devoid of value to others). And then we noticed that some items were actually cheaper when we weren't logged into Prime, which was just silly.
I rarely go to retail stores either, but I also don't understand the rush. I've been planning this project for weeks. My wife's birthday is still a month away. It's been three years since the movie was announced. Another few days won't kill me.
Re: I still don't understand why people want this (Score:2)
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Even Amazon is trying to get people to *not* take advantage of this. For the past few years, when you purchase something from Amazon they default you to "Amazon Day" delivery - which can be up to a week out. The idea is they make fewer trips to your house - ostensibly to save the environment, but more likely it's simply a business decision to attempt saving them some money.
(Side note - when I do order from Amazon, I typically do go with "Amazon Day" delivery)
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When I order from Amazon I also go the Amazon Day route.
That way I don't waste time sitting around every day waiting for an Amazon package to be thrown at my doorsteps; more efficient use of MY TIME.
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Unless I'm truly in a rush, which is rare, I deliberately choose not to get 1-2 day delivery. There is no need to drive the workers that hard and use resources a little harder just for a frivolous convenience otherwise.
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Unless I'm truly in a rush, which is rare, I deliberately choose not to get 1-2 day delivery. There is no need to drive the workers that hard and use resources a little harder just for a frivolous convenience otherwise.
We're the same way in our household. We'd also love to be able to choose "don't deliver on Sundays" because it seems ultra stupid to us, but they don't offer us that choice. It's shocking how often that happens without us wanting rushed deliveries at all.
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I used to pick the slowest shipping time in order to get the lowest rate. Prime members seem to want to PAY for faster shipping speeds. Really, they can't plan in advance that they need toilet paper? This fast delivery means more trucks on the road more often for more traffic.
I see this in my condo complex. One van comes in and delivers one item and leaves. Less than an hour later another van comes in and delivers another single item to a different home. And so forth. Why not just one van just once or
Exactly opposite of my experience (Score:3)
Not sure where they came up with these numbers - unless they're biasing their experience specifically for these larger markets, and penalizing the others.
My experience is almost the exact opposite of what's described. I live in a small city without an Amazon fulfillment center (that I'm aware of).
Today, I see packages typically taking anywhere from 3 to 15+ days to reach me. Typically, it's about a week. There are rare exceptions where it's less than a week, and those are usually in 3-4 days.
There are even situations now where I'm starting to wonder where an item is, 3+ weeks out, and I have to check the site to see that it's "delayed". I've been canceling an increasing number of orders for stuff like this lately (and no, before you ask, they're not typically might-as-well-buy-from-Alibaba type items, it's things like "oh shit, I forgot to pick up underwear at the mall" kind of thing).
Prior to 2020, it was commonplace - typical, even - to receive items within 1-2 days, even somewhat less common items.
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I wouldn't care in the least bit if everything consistently took a week, what bothers me is that they still convey the idea of immediacy, and the delivery estimates are always, consistently, wrong by (usually) 2-3x the duration. I'm surprised when things arrive in 2-3 days now. And, it's really difficult to predict.
It'd be one thing if these things had to travel from China to get to me first, or if they weren't in stock... but they reputedly are in stock, and are already in the US. Why does it take 2 weeks
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I'm in Southern California, have 2 amazon Fresh stores within about 5 miles, 2 Amazon Air hubs within 50 miles, and roughly 4 distribution centers that almost all of my packages go through within about 15 miles.
In the last year, it seems like roughly half the time my packages from them either wind up being a few days late, or just completely disappear during transit. It's gotten bad enough that I don't purchase most things from Amazon any more. They used to at least give you a free month of Prime when that
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I've been a Prime "member" since at least 2010 and have been a customer since the late 1999 when all they sold was books.
My first purchase: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671726889/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Hear Hear! (Score:2)
Up until mid 2019 I lived in the Seattle metro area and routinely got next day delivery and an occasional same day delivery. Seldom did anything take longer than 2 days.
In mid 2019 we moved t
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"I'm confident that Amazon's "express" delivery times is highly skewed toward large population centers. "
Hardly.
I live in Luxembourg and here Amazon is now the second largest employer of the country with 5000 people, I order something before 6pm I get it the next morning and I live in Buttfuck, Luxembourg, the whole country has less than 700.000 people.
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Yep, I've had those same experiences/frustrations with the delivery estimates. When you buy from Amazon to save a trip to the store, and then it hasn't arrived when you need it, it's a subtle betrayal.
It's like they're not using the logistics understanding they've developed over years to inform their own systems how long things take to ship/be delivered. Mystifying.
gaslight much? (Score:4, Interesting)
When I first signed up for prime, (before covid) I was seeing order-to-hand times of 1-3 days. My expectation now is 3-5 days. I assumed it was just a covid thing, but it's just never recovered. And it's been a bit annoying, seeing the price of prime go up, while my total order time has almost doubled. So (for me anyway) it seems that the value of Prime has dropped quite a bit.
It's weird to watch it sometimes. The estimate that Amazon gives me is usually correct (or even a day later than it actually arrives) but so many times I wait 1-3 days before it even SHIPS. This is what I don't understand. Why does it take longer for you to get around to shipping it, than it actually takes to travel to my door??
Am I the only one? (central Iowa)
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When I first signed up for prime, (before covid) I was seeing order-to-hand times of 1-3 days. My expectation now is 3-5 days. I assumed it was just a covid thing, but it's just never recovered. And it's been a bit annoying, seeing the price of prime go up, while my total order time has almost doubled. So (for me anyway) it seems that the value of Prime has dropped quite a bit.
It depends on where you are. From what I've seen, if you're in an area where Amazon uses their own trucks for most of their delivery, they've gotten much better, and are doing better than pre-pandemic levels, with the exception of the occasional product that isn't available in the nearest warehouse and has to come from across the country. I've you're in an area where Amazon contracts out all their delivery to USPS, UPS, or FedEx, they've gotten much worse, because Amazon spends more time collecting items
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I think they delayed shipping is due to them needing to order it from their supplier. When it says "in stock" it really means that their supplier has some ready to send to Amazon in a day or two, not that Amazon has it in their warehouse.
Problem is not shipping speed. (Score:3)
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Except that they DO change the status to shipping when they are using their own transport, and they DO include that information in the tracking.
For example, if the last mile is via USPS you will see "Package has arrives/left Amazon facility" and "Package has been picked up by shipping partner" in teh tracking details under the USPS tracking number.
Half are same or next day? (Score:2)
Re:Half are same or next day? (Score:4, Insightful)
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They need to remember that they are a vendor who competes for my business, not a necessary staple in my life.
I think this is something that a lot of the businesses we interact with an a regular basis need to be reminded of. Once they hit a certain size, they (the board, the directors, the in-charge folks) see the company as a vital and essential part of every person's life and can't imagine that anything they do could lose them customers, so they nickel and dime us, fight against anything that may impact overall profit, and do everything they can to dick around the people that helped them build the business in the
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LOL (Score:3)
And everywhere else you'll be lucky to get your package.
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In the UK physical shops are often hopeless. Stock levels are low and it's hit-and-miss if you can actually buy what you want. On top you pay for parking.
Amazon doesn't have to try very hard because the physical shops are so bad, even if it takes a week to get to you it's still faster than waiting for the weekend and then finding that they didn't have what you wanted in stock anyway. Plus you rarely get much choice in physical shops now.
Some people say it's the parking costs and rent that is killing the hig
Amazon failed to automate (Score:2)
Their pickers are still humans because the haven’t the guts to tell their suppliers to standardize on robot friendly packaging. Humans are needed to handle items because of retail packaging.
If you are not on the naughty list.. (Score:2)
They still can't delivery "next day" to all their customers, and like the business they are, they hide that fact from you.
Essentially you can have 2 people, with 2 accounts, look at the same item, and only one will get next day delivery. Thus them trumpeting how well they are delivering is a red herring, as they could do even better.... but that would involve paying their delivery people a decent wage.
Anecdote: bullshit, slower than ever for me (Score:1)
When it says, "order in the next $x hours to get by tomorrow"? Maybe 1 in 20 times I get it tomorrow. 2 days is normal and longer happens way more often than tomorrow.
I don't know who all these tomorrow people are but they're not me.
And yes I live in a normal place with major highways, cities, etc.
Amazon intentionally delays shipping based on zip (Score:2)
When I'm in California, I get 0-day, 1-day, and 2-day shipping from Prime, but for shipping to Nantucket, Massachusetts, for example, items are consistently promised 7-8-day delivery. Orders don't even leave an Amazon warehouse for 5-6 days, but then are delivered in 2-3 days by UPS. You can see this behavior by selecting 02554 as the delivery zip-code in the browser, and suddenly NOTHING is available in less than a full week. Yes, Nantucket is an island, but the same also behavior happens for many other zi
This is the Amazon story we're going with? (Score:1)
Or this one? "Amazon cited by Labor Department for exposing warehouse workers to safety hazards" https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/1... [cnbc.com]
I think this little additional & necessary context, we can get a fuller picture of what Amazon is doing & how.