Amazon Reaches Delivery Speed Milestone

Online retail giant Amazon has delivered more than 5 billion items worldwide in one day and increased the number of orders delivered the same day or next day by 30% year-on-year, the company announced Tuesday.

“Tens of millions of our most popular items are available with free same-day or next-day delivery, meaning Prime today offers 20x more choice and can deliver twice as fast as when Prime first launched…” the company said in a press release.

The company noted that it offers same-day delivery in more than 120 metro areas in the U.S.

In the first half of 2024, the online retailer will also have reduced the distance that items travel by 10% year-on-year.

Artificial intelligence has helped predict demand for products, allowing Amazon to better predict inventory placement, the company said.

“Combining machine learning with regionalized inventory allows us to ship more orders from a single, local location, reducing transportation distance by putting the right products closer to our customers to fulfill orders quickly,” Amazon noted. “By scaling this effort in the first half of the year, we increased the average number of items per box in the U.S. compared to the same period in 2023, reducing the number of required deliveries for these items.”

Amazon said it has regionalized its network to get products closer to consumers, “meaning items travel fewer miles and experience fewer transfers between the time an order is placed and the time it arrives at the customer’s doorstep.”