Amazon Announces One-Day Shipping Plans for all Prime Members

One of the most popular perks about having an Amazon Prime membership is getting unlimited free two-day shipping and Amazon knows that. The retail giant also is aware of the fact that other retail stores such as Walmart and Target have been working hard to catch up to Amazon’s quick shipping options. Now Prime shipping is about to get even better, with plans to have one-day shipping available for all Prime members by the end of 2019. ^[1]

On Thursday, following a release of Amazon’s quarterly earnings, Amazon finance chief Brian Olsavsky stated that the company is working to change its iconic two-day shipping plan to one-day shipping. The company is spending millions on updating infrastructure to allow the change to happen, including investing $800 million this quarter alone.

“We’ll be building most of this capacity through the year, in 2019,” he added. “We expect to make steady progress quickly and through the year,” Olsavsky said. Starting in North America, members who pay for the $119 annual Prime subscription will be offered one-day shipping options by the end of the year. That doesn’t mean Amazon hasn’t already started to implement changes. Last month Amazon dropped one-day shipping with a $35 minimum on eligible ZIP codes.

Offering one-day shipping is a great incentive to keep their current customers and encourage them to buy more stuff on Amazon rather than competing retailers. “[This] opens a lot of potential for purchase and convenience for those customers,” Olsavsky told investors. “We really think it’s going to be groundbreaking for Prime customers, and we’re really excited to add his capability.” ^[2]

Adding one-day shipping to their Prime memberships allows Amazon to put a little ground between them and their competitors. Walmart offers free two-day shipping on all orders over $35, and Target offers free two-day shipping on most items when you spend $35 or more.