The race for speed: How Amazon is pushing the boundaries of eCommerce Delivery

Amazon yesterday announced it delivered more than 7 billion items to Prime members at the fastest speeds ever in 2023, including more than 4 billion in the U.S. and more than 2 billion in Europe.

The company attributed its success to several factors, including:

• Shipping more products from locations closer to customers: Amazon is working to optimize its operations network to ship more products from fulfillment centers that are located closer to customers. This helps to reduce the travel distance and stops per package, which can speed up deliveries.
• Improving inventory placement: Amazon is working to make sure that more of the products its customers want are stocked locally and in the right buildings within each region. This is being done using AI to identify and store inventory more efficiently.
• Growing its Same-Day Delivery service globally: Amazon is expanding its Same-Day Delivery service to more cities and towns across the world. This is making it easier for customers to get the items they want delivered faster.

Amazon is also investing in new technologies to further improve its delivery speeds. These include:

• Sequoia: This robotics storage system identifies and stores inventory up to 75% faster and, when integrated with other technologies, will reduce order process time by up to 25%.
• Prime Air: This drone delivery program is currently being tested in College Station, Texas, and is expected to expand to the UK, Italy, and a new U.S. location in 2024.

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, said, "We're immensely proud of our progress so far, but we aren't satisfied and know there's more we can do. Our work on delivery speeds is a global, multi-year effort, and we know we have massive runway for us to continue delivering ever faster for customers."

Additional details about Amazon's plans for 2024

• Shipping more products from locations closer to customers: Amazon will continue to refine its regionalization model and roll out the Sequoia robotics storage system to more facilities.
• Growing its Same-Day Delivery service globally: Amazon will add Same-Day Delivery sites in a variety of U.S. metro areas and offer more products customers want and need the same or next day.
• Expanding its delivery network to reach more geographies: Amazon will continue to expand its logistics delivery network to reach more rural customers and tailor its delivery modes in more densely populated areas.