USPS teams with major online marketplace
Amazon recently announced the forging of a partnership with the United States Postal Service to extend package delivery to Sundays.
This holiday season, USA Today reports the USPS expects to deliver somewhere in the neighborhood of 420 million packages, up 12 percent since last year - a result of the agency's rapidly growing package delivery service. Capitalizing on the postal service's gains, Amazon has teamed up with USPS to bring Sunday delivery to two of the biggest markets, New York and Los Angeles. The partnership hopes to expand the service in 2014, making it a year-round offering and adding the Dallas, New Orleans and Phoenix markets, among others.
"The three big pieces of growth for us are selection, lower prices and speed," Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service for Amazon, recently told USA Today. "Adding an additional day is all about delivery speed. An Amazon customer can order a backpack and a Kindle for their child and be packing it up on Sunday for school on Monday."
More benefits for customers
One of the most enticing aspects of the new Sunday delivery options for customers is that the service comes at no additional charge. Amazon Prime customers, who already benefit from complimentary two-day shipping, will now have the option to order goods on Friday and receive them on Sunday. Regular customers will still have access to Sunday delivery, but will have to settle for standard shipping prices.
It is certainly not the first time Sunday delivery has been offered. In the past, FedEx has offered late weekend delivery, but only on a small scale. A spokesman from the shipping company recently told the Los Angeles Times that FedEx doesn't consider Sunday a regular delivery day.
Responsible for delivery of Amazon orders, the USPS will be using its flexible schedule to cover the additional day of service. No additional staff will need to be hired.
For businesses with active markets in New York and/or LA, the introduction of Sunday delivery service provides an additional advertising angle during the heavy shopping season. To fully capitalize on the potential opportunity, companies can invest in mailing software to further optimize postal operations. Mailing software allows companies to eliminate much of the labor associated with presorting, standardizing, validating and barcoding mail by fully automating the steps.