Amazon [NASDAQ:AMZN] today announced yet another one of their innovations to help change the retail industry, Sunday delivery. Amazon is partnering with the USPS (US Postal Service) is working with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver packages on Sundays to people living within the Los Angeles and New York metro areas. What this also means is that people living within those areas that have Amazon prime, can use their unlimited 2 day shipping to receive packages on Sunday in those two areas. Amazon also plans to roll out this new program in other metropolitan areas like Houston, New Orleans, Phoenix and Dallas in 2014. However, the cities to be added in 2014 are not limited to just these cities, and people living in top 10 metro areas can probably expect this in their areas.
What’s interesting is that Amazon isn’t saying how much this service will cost extra for non-Prime users and I suspect that it will actually demand a premium much like Saturday delivery does. What this does mean, though, is that the USPS may not have to cut nearly as many jobs as they might have thought. With companies like DHL already using them for the last 5 miles of service, and now Amazon, we could actually see the Postal Service make a comeback. Sure, Sunday service won’t save the USPS from going under, but it should increase the volume of packages they process which should theoretically help their margins and profitability.
In order to take part in Amazon’s new program, all you have to do is add eligible items into your cart and you can see the Sunday delivery option at checkout when available in your region. Personally, I can’t wait for this option to become available, because it would mean that a lot of packages that normally arrive for me on Monday could now arrive on Sunday, reducing the time it takes for things to get to me. Plus, if I’m not home during the week, it would be nice to have the ability to get things shipped to me on Sunday instead. This is clearly not a huge innovation for Amazon, but I think it does fill a need that consumers have and I think it will get pretty broad adoption from consumers.
I would expect Amazon’s stock to take a pretty significant bounce as a result of this announcement, no matter how simple it is. I believe that this is a further recognition by Amazon of their customers’ wants and needs and I believe that Amazon is slowly working towards becoming your one stop shop for literally anything and everything. They’re already getting pretty damn close to it.
