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With the release of its 2024 annual financial reports, two big-box retailers—Amazon and Walmart—have shared goals for 2025 in terms of improving product delivery times to customers.
In a letter to shareholders in April, CEO of Amazon Andy Jassy shared that when Amazon promises faster delivery times, customers complete purchases at higher rates. Amazon Prime currently offers unlimited and free two-day delivery for over 300 million items, with tens of millions of products available in one day. Amazon is also utilizing Prime Air, delivery drones promising delivery within an hour, and expanding Same-Day and Overnight Delivery to small towns around the U.S. to deliver to customers living in 13,000 zip codes over 1.2 million square miles.
“This speed improvement is primarily due to our regionalization redesign of our fulfillment network, our new placement algorithms and the introduction of our innovative same-day fulfillment centers,” Jassy says. “Although we’ve set speed records for two consecutive years, we’re still honing these innovations and have others planned.”
Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillion also provided updates to Walmart’s delivery strategy in a letter to shareholders in April, promising to deliver to 95% of the U.S. population in under three hours by the end of the year.
“We’re building a smarter, more flexible, more intelligent and automated supply chain that supports both our stores and our e-commerce business,” McMillion says. “There is more change happening in our supply chain than I’ve ever seen. My first job with Walmart was working in one of our warehouses, and seeing what our team is doing today is mind-blowing. We’re doing the things we used to dream about.”
