MD: The cost of the “last mile” of delivery is a significant portion of the whole cost of the delivery. This is normally executed by the USPS carrier, the UPS driver, or the FedEx driver. This is one driver, one vehicle, delivering one package to one purchaser at a time. Even in downtown locations, the delivery can’t be made door to door (like mail) because of the size of the packages.But what if Amazon … or UPS or USPS or FedEx partnered with gas stations (and/or convenience stores). They could drop off dozens of packages at these points in a single delivery (eliminating dozens of last mile deliveries). The purchaser would be likely passing the convenience store on a regular basis anyway and would just stop in and pick up their package (they would do the last mile themselves at no additional cost). Further, they would likely make some other impulse purchase.
Companies like Dollar General could trump what Amazon is doing by offering this service to their own customers. They already have very many conveniently located outlets … especially in rural areas.
I think Amazon is barking up the wrong tree here.
Just a thought for greater efficiency and lower cost.
Amazon opens ‘Instant Pickup’ points in U.S. brick-and-mortar push
FILE PHOTO: An Amazon pickup location is seen at the University of California in Berkeley, California, U.S. August 14, 2017. Reuters/Jeffrey Dastin/File Photo
BERKELEY, Ca (Reuters) – Amazon.com Inc is rolling out pickup points in the United States where shoppers can retrieve items immediately after ordering them, shortening delivery times from hours to minutes, the company said on Tuesday.
The world’s largest online retailer has launched ‘Instant Pickup’ points around five college campuses, such as the University of California at Berkeley, it said. Amazon has plans to open more sites by the end of the year including one in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Shoppers on Amazon’s mobile app can select from several hundred fast-selling items at each site, from snacks and drinks to phone chargers. Amazon employees in a back room then load orders into lockers within two minutes, and customers receive bar codes to access them.
The news underscores Amazon’s broader push into brick-and-mortar retail. The e-commerce company, which said in June it would buy Whole Foods Market Inc for $13.7 billion, has come to realize that certain transactions like buying fresh produce are hard to shift online. Its Instant Pickup program targets another laggard: impulse buys.
“I want to buy a can of coke because I’m thirsty,” said Ripley MacDonald, Amazon’s director of student programs. “There’s no chance I’m going to order that on Amazon.com and wait however long it’s going to take for that to ship to me.”
FILE PHOTO: An Amazon pickup location is seen at the University of California in Berkeley, California, U.S. August 14, 2017. Reuters/Jeffrey Dastin/File Photo
“I can provide that kind of service here,” he said of the new program.
FILE PHOTO: An Amazon pickup location is seen at the University of California in Berkeley, California, U.S. August 14, 2017. Reuters/Jeffrey Dastin/File Photo
Instant Pickup puts Amazon in competition with vending machine services. Yet the larger size of the Amazon sites means they are unlikely to pose a threat to those selling snack and drink vending machines to offices and schools. MacDonald said Amazon considered automating the Instant Pickup points but declined to say why the company had not pursued the idea.
Amazon’s ability to shorten delivery times has been a sore point for brick-and-mortar retailers, who have struggled to grow sales as their customers have turned to more convenient online options. Until Instant Pickup, Amazon shoppers could expect to have their orders within an hour at best via the company’s Prime Now program, or within 15 minutes for grocery orders via AmazonFresh Pickup. Amazon has made two-day shipping standard in the United States.
Instant Pickup prices may be cheaper than those on Amazon.com, MacDonald said. He declined to detail how the items are priced, however.
Other locations in the program now open include Los Angeles, Atlanta, Columbus, Ohio and College Park, Maryland.
Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin; Editing by Andrew Hay