Amazon And U.S. Postal Service Team Up For Sunday Delivery

By Anna Rose Welch, Editorial & Community Director, Advancing RNA

Sunday shipping increases Amazon’s competition with eBay, brick-and-mortar stores

Amazon recently announced that it has partnered with the U.S. Postal Service in order to implement Sunday deliveries. While this was once a luxury for which customers had to pay extra shipping fees, the Postal Service announced it now will be delivering packages at regular rates on Sundays. This initiative is being implemented immediately in Los Angeles and New York — just in time for the holidays — and will be spreading to the rest of the nation in 2014.

This was an important strategic effort on the part of Internet giant Amazon, especially in an age where the Internet’s ability to connect people has led to decreasing demand for traditional postal services. Not only does this partnership improve customer service for Amazon, which will now be able to deliver customer orders 7 days a week, but this partnership is also a key part of the Postal Service’s recent turnaround efforts. Over the past two years, the Postal Service has suffered $21 billion losses and faced stiff competition from parcel delivery companies FedEx, DHL, and UPS. While the Postal Service has been attempting to eliminate Saturday letter deliveries to save costs, it aims to keep offering weekend shipment of packages to better compete against rivals and to encourage and benefit from the growth of e-commerce.

And indeed, with this partnership, e-commerce can, and will continue to grow. With Amazon being able to deliver 7 days a week, the company stands to gain more customers and better battle brick-and-mortar stores that promote an instant-buying experience. As Dave Clark, Amazon’s VP of worldwide operations and customer service, says, “This is part of a continuing effort to make online shopping a normal, seven-day-a-week, anytime-you-want experience.”

This timing has never been more important for Amazon, considering the fact that several other online retailers have begun stepping it up to make online shopping and delivery a more immediate experience for customers. For example, eBay, one of Amazon’s primary competitors, recently announced the expansion of its popular eBay Now service. This move opened the service up to a larger customer base, further heightening consumer’s demands for an immediate purchase-and-receive online shopping experience. Because of growing initiatives like this — and a quickly approaching holiday season — Sunday deliveries become an even more important development for Amazon to provide customers with a quicker, more convenient shopping experience.

Click here to see how eBay is taking shipping global.

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