Amazon’s Discontinued Same-Day Delivery Service ‘An Unnecessary Offshoot’
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Amazon is putting the kibosh on its little-known same-day delivery program that enabled customers to order products directly from brick-and-mortar stores of retailers like Fabletics and PacSun.
According to the e-commerce giant, Amazon Today will continue offering same-day delivery and in-store pickup from select retail partners through Jan. 24. The bulk of the program will likely unwind in early December, according to a report from CNBC.
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Using the program, partner retailers could market their in-store selection on Amazon.com and offer either same-day delivery or pickup. Amazon Flex drivers would collect the packages and deliver them with their own vehicle. Amazon Today emphasized fast fulfillment to local consumers, meaning the retailers could not listed items for nationwide shipping.
The offering also included real-time inventory management capabilities, out of stock buffers and capacity management controls to help retailers drive incremental order volume at its stores.
In scrapping the service, Amazon claimed it was redundant.
“As we’ve continued increasing the selection available with same-day and one-day delivery, we’ve seen a growing overlap between those programs and Amazon Today, so after careful consideration, we’ve made the decision to sunset Amazon Today,” Amazon spokesperson said.
Amazon first debuted the program in August 2022 without giving it a name, when it signed up retailers including PacSun, Diesel, Superdry and GNC and started in 10 markets before expanding nationwide.
Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail, said Amazon Today “seemed like a bit of an unnecessary offshoot” for the tech titan.
“Amazon has increased same-day delivery from its own site, and it has focused programs like Buy With Prime to help retailers with fulfillment,” Saunders told Sourcing Journal. That offering has continually given more third-party retailers access to Amazon Prime members.
Initially launched in April 2022, four months ahead of Amazon Today, the program was built to allow Prime members to shop from other retailer’s e-commerce sites while still using their Amazon account, and getting the perks of free delivery and returns.
Since its launch, the offering has added new retailer-friendly functionalities, including package tracking, expanded returns and 24/7 live chat customer service. Amazon also started allowing U.S.-based Shopify merchants to leverage Buy with Prime in September 2023.