Amazon, the global e-commerce giant, has announced record-breaking sales for its annual Prime Day event in 2024. On Tuesday 30 July, the company reported that Prime members had shopped millions of deals across more than 35 categories, resulting in the purchase of more items than any previous Prime Day shopping event.
One of the factors contributing to Amazon’s success this year is its ability to offer the fastest Prime delivery speeds ever. In fact, more than 5 billion items have arrived the same or next day globally, a significant increase of over 30% compared to the previous year. This impressive achievement not only benefits Prime members, but also helps small and medium-sized businesses succeed in the Amazon marketplace as the majority of these 5 billion items were delivered on behalf of independent sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon.
“Amazon’s accelerating delivery speeds are helping small and medium-sized businesses succeed in our store, with the majority of these 5 billion items delivered on behalf of independent sellers using Fulfillment by Amazon,” said an Amazon spokesperson.
The company’s commitment to providing a wide selection of products with fast delivery is evident as Prime members can now choose from more than 300 million items with free Prime shipping, compared to just one million when the membership program launched in 2005. Additionally, tens of millions of the most popular items are available with free Same-Day or One-Day Delivery, offering 20 times more selection than when Prime first launched and delivering items twice as fast.
In order to achieve these impressive delivery speeds, Amazon has focused on three key initiatives. Firstly, the company has expanded its Same-Day Delivery network, now available in more than 120 U.S. metro areas, by streamlining operations to enable quick and reliable delivery. Secondly, Amazon has regionalized its fulfillment network, reducing the distance between its sites and customers and ultimately shortening delivery times. Lastly, the company has utilized advanced machine learning algorithms to predict product demand and improve inventory placement, resulting in more orders being shipped from a single local site, reducing transportation distance and increasing efficiency.
“While we are proud to offer our customers a wide selection of products at even faster speeds, the safety and health of our employees remains our top priority. We have allocated over $750 million this year for technologies, resources, training, and programs to further improve safety across our network,” said the Amazon spokesperson.
As a result of these efforts, Amazon has seen a 28% improvement in its U.S. recordable incident rate and a 75% improvement in its lost time incident rate from 2019 to 2023. The company continues to innovate and invest in order to further accelerate delivery speeds across the country and around the world, offering Prime members the ability to order from more than 35 product categories with Same-Day and One-Day Delivery.
Some of the most popular items ordered for Same-Day Delivery by Prime members so far this year in the U.S. include ear buds, coffee pods, sunscreen, and insect traps. With a strong commitment to providing a wide selection of products with fast and reliable delivery, Amazon continues to solidify its position as a leader in the e-commerce industry.
Derick is an experienced reporter having held multiple senior roles for large publishers across Europe. Specialist subjects include small business and financial emerging markets.