It was recently announced by Brian Olsavsky, the company’s chief financial officer, during a call concerning Amazon’s 2019 quarter earnings that he is looking to decrease the shipping time from two days to just one. This would mean that they will be investing around $800 Million into shipping and warehouse costs.
This comes at a time when most retailers have upped their shipping game in order to keep up with Amazon’s insane two-day guarantee. According to Olsavsky this move is to help them stay at the top. He plans to role this out world wide but to start the changes within the US.
The problem with this model though is that some of their prime shipments are already arriving late. Ten percent of Prime subscribers complain that their shipments do not come on time and Amazon who used to extend your prime subscription has changed that to *maybe awarding you a few bucks which would have translated into the shipping fees. Depending on how much you spent and if you choose to inquire either by email, call, or instant chat. In my experience they are usually pretty good about refunding damaged items but when it comes to shipping delays, or if they say that something is “Prime” and then it takes four days there really isn’t much they can do.
What if they decide to roll this out and then can’t keep up with demand? Are they prepared to refund or award people who do not receive their items on time? Or maybe it’s our best bet to just try and order things a week in advance, just in case. Especially students who rely on this service for everything from note books to art supplies and books. The student store is usually at least 3x the cost of the book on amazon and if they are late and you don’t have your book for the class it’s you who suffers.
Also does anyone remember Amazon Fresh? That was another really cool thing they rolled out.. for a while… until it disappeared. Or it wasn’t available in your area anymore, and then what happened? Your subscription was for nothing because it was a separate cost. I wonder if they are going to increase the subscription price to keep up with their cost of shipping. Remember, one day shipping isn’t cheap, especially when you’ll be looking to deliver millions of parcels. For example, according to InstantShip, an online platform comparing UPS shipping rates, “Amazon’s shipping cost increased from 12% in 2017 to more than 16% from 2018-2019.”
**Right before publishing this I received a text for a prime item that will be late. Oops. It just strengthens the case against one day shipping, unless something significant changes. Hopefully that money they are willing to invest goes to good use.
What do you think about this new initiative? Do you think they can do it and pull it off? Have you had problems with their shipping? Tell us in the comments!
