Can you believe that your ‘Shipment is in transit before you buy the product’, well if anyone tells me about this concept few months back, I would simply say this is not possible. But quite amazingly Amazon has decided to make this into reality.
Probably Amazon knows its customers so well that it wants to ship your next package before you buy it. Amazon has got a patent in December 2013 which is on ‘Anticipatory Shipping or Predictive Shipping’ mentioned as a method of delivering items before customer’s even add that to ‘Shopping Cart’.
Reason behind “Predictive Shipping Concept’
Amazon described it as a revolutionary concept which could cut down the Product Delivery Time and encourage consumers more to Online Shopping. Because as per them, delay between order and delivery possibly refrain some consumers to buy online.
So the solution they came into, ship the products that the customers might order from a specific area, and store it in the local shipping hubs. So that when ordered, the items can be delivered in the same day might be in an hour.
But now the most difficult question is how Amazon will determine which items will be ordered by the consumers from a particular area, as mentioned in the patent it will be decided based on some factors.
Factors which decide What the Consumer will Order
Which items will be ordered and from which area, this question will be answered through some new Algorithms which is possibly considering below factors:
- Previous Orders and Previous Searches
- Wish Lists and Shopping Cart Contents
- Sales Returns
- Hovering time on a Particular Product in the website
How the Shipping will work
Everything is in speculation stage at this point. The current way of shipping is, Amazon receives an order, then labels packages with addresses at its warehouses and loads them onto waiting UPS, USPS or other trucks, which may take them directly to customers’ homes or load them onto other trucks for final delivery.
With ‘Predictive Shipping’ method, Amazon may fill out partial street addresses or zip codes to get items closer to where customers need them, and later complete the label in transit, and in this way cut the delivery time to achieve overnight delivery or same say delivery.
Is this apply to all Product Categories?
This question might come to your mind while reading this article. I don’t think initially it will be available for all kinds of items. Rather a Popular Book, a new Cell Phone Release, kind of products which generates interest and expectation of same day delivery, might fall into ‘Predictive Shipping’ concept first.
This is a new and radical concept, success of this obviously need some time. Amazon Algorithms sometimes generates error. However Amazon is quite optimistic with the ‘Predictive Shipping’ concept, mentioned that it might consider giving customers discounts, or convert the unwanted delivery into a gift.
Also Read:
- Know how to reduce product shipment time in ecommerce
- 5 things eCommerce Businesses should put in the Shipping Box
