How Amazon Day Could Change Ecommerce Shipping

Amazon have recently announced Amazon Day. This new initiate from Amazon encourages it's customers to set a preferred delivery day that reoccurs each week. Then, as orders roll in, Amazon will consolidate all of the orders for the week into one delivery, on the day previously specified. Allowing customers to specify a day for their deliveries to arrive each week is thought to make shopping online with Amazon even more convenient.

Additionally, the new consolidated delivery schedule should result in less vans on the road, edging Amazon closer to the goal of their Shipment Zero project to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Currently Amazon Day is only available in the US, where Amazon partners with competing shipper, UPS, to deliver 20-25% of their orders. With large, more predictable multi-order consignments, the volume of deliveries Amazon outsources to logistics partners may change.

Will Amazon Day trigger a change in the ecommerce shipping landscape?

Waiting for a consolidated drop of orders on a predefined day of the week is a considerable paradigm shift from how same-day and next delivery expectations have been growing over past few years. Interestingly, Amazon Day is only available to Prime subscriptions, which is known for it's same-day and next day delivery options.

If Amazon are successful as innovators at getting customers on-board with deliveries just once a week, no doubt the rest of the industry will follow suit. Customer convenience aside, it's easy to see the financial incentive for retailers. And if customers are increasingly opting for deliveries being left in lockers or at collection shops, it is easy to imagine speed taking a backseat over convenience.