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How Amazon achieved its fastest ever delivery speeds in 2024

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Amazon set new delivery speed records in 2024.

Amazon credits improvements in its speed of deliveries in 2024 to one key strategic move.

The e-commerce giant delivered more than 9 billion items via same-day or next-day globally for Prime members in 2024 at record speeds. Amazon says its improved delivery speed (in the U.S.)  primarily resulted from increasing its same-day delivery sites by more than 60% during the year. The move expanded same-day delivery operations to a total of more than 140 metro areas.

As a result of moving more products closer to consumers, Amazon says its employees picking, packing, and driving deliveries are doing the same thing for orders that arrive the same or next day as orders that used to take two or three days.

Other 2024 highlights in delivery and in the Prime paid subscription program cited by Amazon include:

  • More than 2 billion items from Amazon’s everyday essentials selection arrived the same or next day in the U.S. over the course of the year, an increase of more than 50% year-over-year.
  • Amazon expanded its same-day delivery category selection, enabling customers to shop grocery items and everyday essentials for same-day delivery.
  • The company allocated over $750 million for technologies, resources, training, and programs to further improve safety across the Amazon network following a 28% improvement in its U.S. recordable incident rate from 2019 to 2023.
  • Prime members worldwide saved nearly $95 billion on fast, free delivery. In the U.S., Prime members saved on average over $500 on their deliveries during the year.
  • Prime members in the U.S. placed an average of nearly 100 orders in 2024, or nearly two orders every single week.
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"Fast, free delivery with Prime changed customers’ expectations, and we aim to keep exceeding expectations and help members get more of what they need and want—at record speeds," said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, in a corporate blog post. "Record savings during our Prime-exclusive deal events, new offers like fuel savings, and fast, convenient delivery of everyday essentials, fresh groceries, and even prescription medication are some of the perks helping make Prime a better deal than ever before."

[READ MORE: Amazon enhances delivery of medications, groceries]

Prime offers free delivery on more than 300 million items across 35 categories, tens of millions of which can be delivered the same or next day. The service now offers 20 times more selection that can be delivered twice as fast compared to when Prime first launched in the U.S. in 2005. 

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