Amazon begins expanding same-day Prime delivery to rural customers
Amazon has kicked off a multi-billion dollar effort to offer faster Prime delivery to more than 4,000 rural communities, smaller cities and town by the end of the year.
The online giant, which in May 2025 announced plans to spend more than $4 billion to expand its rural U.S. delivery network in order to speed up delivery for millions of customers living in less densely populated areas, has begun offering free same-day and next-day delivery in more than 1,000 smaller cities, towns, and rural communities.
According to Amazon, this investment will include growing its rural delivery network’s footprint to more than 200 delivery stations, which support the last mile of its order process and help speed up deliveries for customers.
Packages are shipped to a delivery station from nearby Amazon fulfillment and sortation centers, loaded into delivery vehicles, and delivered to customers.
For each new facility it opens, Amazon estimates an average of 170 jobs will be created at the delivery stations themselves, with more made available via the Delivery Service Partner (DSP) and Amazon Flex contract driver programs.
Amazon is also transforming existing rural delivery stations into hybrid hubs that serve multiple functions. This includes storing inventory on-site to enable delivery within hours and preparing packages for final delivery to customers.
In addition, the company is using advanced machine learning algorithms to predict which items will meet the unique needs of local Prime members. This includes stocking a mix of the most-popular and frequently purchased items, curated to fit local preferences.
Amazon opened its first rural delivery station and began scaling its small-town delivery network in 2023, reporting an average 50% improvement in rural delivery speeds.
[READ MORE: How Amazon achieved its fastest ever delivery speeds in 2024]
So far during 2025, Amazon says the number of items delivered the same or next day in the U.S. increased over 30% compared to the same period last year.
Amazon reports that response from rural customers receiving fast delivery has been very positive. As a result of the faster delivery speeds, customers in these areas are shopping Amazon’s store more frequently and purchasing household essentials at measurably higher rates. Of the top 50 repurchased items for same-day delivery in these areas, over 90% are Amazon everyday essentials items.
By the end of 2026, Amazon expects to have tripled the size of its rural delivery network to provide Prime members in thousands of small towns and rural communities across the continental U.S. the ability to shop more than 300 million items with average delivery times cut in half.
Once this expansion is complete, Amazon expects it will be able to deliver more than 1 billion more packages each year to customers living in more than 13,000 ZIP codes spanning 1.2 million square miles.
The retailer also estimates the investment will create more than 100,000 new jobs and driving opportunities through a range of full-time, part-time and flexible positions.
"Everybody loves fast delivery," said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. "So, whether you live in Monmouth, Iowa or in downtown Los Angeles, now you're going to have the same fantastic Amazon customer experience: the ability to get the wide variety of items you need to keep your household running every day, delivered the same or next day."
