Amazon promotes new delivery method! Will delivery pressure be relieved?

Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday are coming soon, which is an important sales node for Amazon sellers this year! Amazon's Black Friday promotion will officially start this Friday, and Cyber ​​Monday will also start next Monday. The sales during these few days are very important, and in the past, they would be the peak sales in the second half of the year.

In contrast, the United States is now experiencing a second outbreak of the epidemic, and local governments are considering re-implementing a stay-at-home order. Densely populated Los Angeles has taken the lead in issuing a curfew and banning dine-in services, which will be officially implemented on the 25th. The local government also stated that if the epidemic is not under control, the ban will be upgraded again soon, and a strong stay-at-home order comparable to that in March may be implemented.

This means that the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday will put a lot of pressure on Amazon's delivery. For this reason, Amazon has started to vigorously promote various pickup modes this week to reduce the delivery pressure for warehouses.

According to foreign media reports, Amazon is recommending consumers to adopt more "self-pickup" methods through emails and app notifications, and go to physical retail stores or nearby distribution hubs to retrieve their packages.

In its communications with customers, Amazon mentioned several different delivery methods, which are:

Amazon Map Tracking: Customers can view the progress of their delivery on a map in real time in the relevant app. This feature enables customers to contact the driver in advance to pick up the goods before the driver arrives at the destination.

Amazon Share Tracking: This feature allows consumers to send a virtual gift link to the recipient after shopping. The recipient can use the link to simulate the process of unwrapping the gift online, and can directly track the gift's shipping process and send a thank-you email to the giver.

Amazon Photo-On-Delivery: This feature is Amazon's visual delivery service. The courier will place the package at the designated location and take a photo to inform the consumer, who will then go to pick up the package.

Amazon Estimated Delivery and Amazon Day: Both of these services allow customers to plan a time that is convenient for them to receive the goods, and Amazon will deliver the goods within this time period.

Garage delivery and designated location delivery: Garage delivery is a service launched by Amazon last year. Deliverymen can open the garage of sellers participating in the service directly through the official application and place the package in it for delivery.

Delivery at designated locations is the key service that Amazon is promoting this year. In addition to picking up the goods by yourself at Amazon Hub delivery points in more than 900 cities and towns in the United States, you can also choose delivery from Amazon offline stores, including Amazon 4-star and Amazon Books.

After choosing the designated delivery location, Amazon will automatically match the customer with a pickup point that is most convenient for the customer when the customer checks out. After the package is delivered to the location, Amazon will send an email to the customer containing the detailed pickup location, time and pickup method, and allow the customer to pick up the package at the location within 3-15 days.

Many of these delivery methods can effectively reduce the pressure of last-mile delivery. Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday are coming soon, and Amazon's guidance and publicity are very timely. Of course, there are negative effects as well.

Although Amazon rarely uses the self-pickup method, some offline supermarket giants that have transformed into online e-commerce, such as Walmart, Target, etc., are very familiar with this method. Due to epidemic prevention, these offline supermarkets are unable to hold the traditional offline Black Friday promotions like in previous years, and now have all switched to online promotions.

Amazon's competitiveness is limited when facing these traditional supermarkets. Amazon does not have as many offline pickup points as supermarkets, and Amazon needs to transport products from the FBA operation center to the pickup points, while supermarkets directly pick up products from their own warehouses. In comparison, Amazon's service is relatively useless.

Having said that, for sellers, this service also has disadvantages. Picking up the goods by yourself will lead to more uncertainties, such as not receiving the goods, customers forgetting to pick up the goods and the goods are returned, etc. Sellers may pay more after-sales costs for this pickup method.

Although this service is not very competitive, if Amazon encounters an emergency with its transportation capacity and is unable to deliver a large number of orders in the short term, more incentive policies can be used to encourage customers to choose this delivery method to divert delivery orders from the operation center.

Therefore, sellers should still pay attention to possible cost overflows during this peak season. Moreover, the epidemic situation in the United States is not optimistic. If there is another outbreak like the one in March, there will be many emergencies in the cross-border industry that will be difficult to deal with. The most universal response strategy is to control costs.