USPS, Amazon Bring Sunday Delivery In New Deal
A new deal between USPS and Amazon means Sunday deliveries will guarantee customers get their holiday purchases quickly this season. The news came Monday in an announcement from the popular online shopping outlet. Though it will only be available for shoppers in and around Los Angeles and New York this year, Amazon plans to expand Sunday shipping to the rest of the US in 2014.
Amazon and USPS Sunday delivery will begin immediately for Los Angeles and New York to take advantage of the coming shopping rush, USA Today reports. Those with Amazon Prime memberships will benefit the most from the new Sunday deliveries, who will get free Sunday delivery. Online shoppers who aren’t part of the popular Prime service will also have their packages delivered on Sunday by USPS. However, free 5- to 8-day shipping will now require orders of $35 or more. Previously, orders of $25 or more qualified for free shipping from Amazon.
As Huffington Post reports, this new agreement will help the ailing US Postal Service. USPS reported a $16 billion loss last year as Americans come to rely less on “snail mail” and business is lost to FedEx and UPS. Before the new agreement, USPS had asked Congress to consider a proposal that would have ended Saturday delivery, in an effort to cut back on expenses.
How does USPS plan to keep up with an extra day of deliveries? According to a spokeswoman for USPS, no new workers will be hired. Instead, their flexible scheduling policies will help shuffle the extra work around.
Amazon has gone to no small lengths to slim down the time it takes for customers to get their packages. Recently the online retail giant spent billions of dollars on new shipping warehouses around the world, according to USA Today. As Dave Clark, Amazon’s vice president of global operations, says, the biggest opportunities for the site to grow involve item price and selection as well as shipping speeds. He believes the new agreement between USPS and Amazon for Sunday delivery will make a big difference for customers.
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