Amazon Testing Sunday Delivery For Holiday Season In New York City and L.A.
Amazon.com Inc., a giant Internet retailer, is increasing the heat on its rivals this buying season, and under a deal made with the United States Postal Service, will have packages delivered on Sundays. Beginning this week, Amazon shoppers in both areas will get their packages on Sunday at no additional charges. There is a plan to extend this service to the Phoenix, Dallas, New Orleans and other areas.
According to a spokeswoman with the agency, Sunday delivery of packages is generally costly for customers because the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t typically delivery on this day. FedEx Corp. said Sunday isn’t a regular delivery day; however, there are some options available.
The deal between the Internet retailer and embattled postal service could be helpful to the agency, which has struggled for years with financial losses and has pushed to reduce its delivery from six to five days a week.
Spokeswoman Sue Brennan said the volume of letter mail has decline significantly but package volume has increase two-digit percentages. While the Sunday package delivery is small, the arrangement between the two for its larger market areas should increase the work tremendously.
In order for Amazon’s Sunday delivery to be pulled off, the postal service will use the flexible employee scheduling. No new employees will be hired to handle the expected volume.
Amazon Prime members have free two-day shipping and, if they order on Friday, can get their order on Sunday. Customers not members of Prime will pay the normal shipping costs linked to the business day delivery.
With more customers moving to the Internet to shop, retailers are learning that the shipping policies they have can make or break customer loyalty. While many don’t offer Sunday delivery, many are trying out the same-day service, which includes some Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and EBay Inc. Google said it’s testing the same-day delivery service known as Google Shopping Express for Internet purchases made in the Bay Area.
Adding a Sunday delivery service changes the competition level. Amazon uses its own employees for the daily deliveries but also relies on mail services – postal service, FedEx, UPS and smaller couriers to deliver the products they day they were ordered.
Vice President of Worldwide Operations and Customer Service Dave Clark said, previously, Amazon offered Sunday shipping for goods sold on its main website. However, this is the first time a broad-scale delivery on Sunday is being attempted. He said it’ll be difficult for others to copy.
Clark said the delivery on Sundays were created to launch as soon as the company was ready, which just happened to be at the holiday shopping season.
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