Amazon is urging shoppers to click & collect their online orders from its physical stores as it tries to expand delivery options for shoppers this holiday shopping season.
The ecommerce giant is now allowing shoppers to collect their orders from its Amazon Books and Amazon 4 Star bricks-and-mortar stores across the US.
With online sales expected to surge 33 per cent this year to a record $189 billion, Amazon has also launched a new “Amazon Day” delivery option, allowing customers to select a single day of the week for all their orders to be delivered.
Alongside these announcements Amazon also pointed customers towards its vast network of self-service and manned “hubs” located in local shops and in residential buildings.
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All three of these initiatives will help Amazon limit the number of laborious last mile delivery trips it needs to make, helping negate what is set to be unprecedented demand for its rapid delivery network on which its popularity is largely built.
Amazon told Charged the alternative delivery options have no impact on network capacity, adding that it the changes were designed to provide more choice to customers.
“We deliver for our customers every day and we’ll continue to do so this holiday season,” an Amazon spokesperson said.
“We’re adding new transportation capacity, hiring 100,000 new full- and part-time employees, plus an additional 100,000 seasonal employees to supplement our current workforce, and putting more selection in fulfillment centers closer to customers, which is possible because of the sophisticated and innovative network we’ve been building for over twenty years.”
The retailer’s supply chain has already been put under considerable strain this year, forcing Amazon to cancel all non-essential orders for weeks during the height of the first wave of the pandemic.
While Amazon has significantly beefed up its operations, hiring record numbers of staff to man its distribution centres, experts have warned customers to do their Christmas shopping early this year to avoid potential disappointment due to delivery delays.