Fresh groceries door-to-door in hours? Sure, well take that.
Consumers are about to come face to face with the possibility that the Amazon we all grew up with and came to love for anything and everything may no longer be that Amazon.
We knew this was coming, though. Weve seen Amazon launch satellites into space. Weve seen Amazon open stores where there are no cashiers. Weve seen Amazon put our packages on drones and deliver them to our front doorstep.
The that was then and this is now reality came into full view recently when the company hosted its annual Delivering The Future event near Nashville, offering a glimpse into the company's evolving priorities.
Earlier, ConsumerAffairs shared part of what Amazon has in mind by bringing together the best of Whole Foods Market, Amazon Fresh and Amazon.com. Thats a nice advancement, but its essentially a product improvement.
The real star of the event was something more immediate and tangible: improving the consumer experience through efficiency something we got a peek of when Amazon also announced its plans to expand same-day delivery of medications from its Amazon Pharmacy to nearly half the U.S. in 2025.
Get ready for faster-than-fast
What this means for Amazon customers is that delivery speed will be king. The company appears obsessed with getting your order to you not quite in the blink of an eyebut darn close.
You can forget next-day delivery because Amazon is now fine-tuning their system to shave off hours, even minutes. Its investing heavily in sophisticated robots that whiz around warehouses, picking and packing items with incredible speed and accuracy. Think of it like a high-tech ballet, choreographed to get your new shoes or that book you just had to have to your doorstep in record time.
Once Amazon gets things on a van headed to your house, there will be new AI technology inside that will spotlight packages to save drivers effort and time. The current plans are to have 1,000 electric delivery vans with Vision-Assisted Package Retrieval by early 2025.
No buts for the bots
Amazon has built a next-generation, state-of-the-art fulfillment center in Shreveport LA where robots and eight different robotics systems are on call to support employees who package and deliver customer orders.
Those robots in the warehouses aren't just for show. Amazon is constantly analyzing every step of the delivery process, looking for ways to streamline and optimize. They're like those efficiency experts you see on TV, but instead of reorganizing your closet, they're redesigning entire warehouses and delivery routes. This means less wasted time, less wasted money and ultimately, lower prices for you.
Thanks to advancements in AI, these technologies integrate seamlessly, and will help us drive an estimated 25% productivity improvement at next-generation fulfillment facilities, said Scott Dresser, vice president of Amazon Robotics. This allows us to deliver more efficiently for customers, while supporting the employees who make it happen.
Phoenix is the test case
The first consumers who get a chance to see if Amazons mantra about speed and efficiency is for real is Phoenix. The company is now running a trial in the Phoenixarea where Prime customers can shop tens of thousands of grocery items (including fresh items) and the standard millions of Amazon.com products and have them delivered inside a few hours.
With this trial in Phoenix, we are making it easier for customers to buy the products they want and need, and have them delivered to their homes quickly, the company said. Were going to continue to expand to more locations as we test and learn with this model. Over time, we expect to see more and more customers using Same-Day Delivery from Amazon to shop for fresh groceries or get ingredients for meals.
Photo Credit: Consumer Affairs News Department Images
Posted: 2024-10-16 13:36:22
