Just as trucks come to collect the garbage and recycling on a specified day each week, Amazon wants to make a regular appointment with its customers for delivery.
The company says a new weekly delivery option is more predictable and efficient, reducing the amount of packaging involved in its core retail business.
The new option, called Amazon Day, is available to people who pay for Amazon Prime. Customers will be able to designate a day each week to receive all of their purchases. That could also help reduce theft of items left on porches if a customer selects a delivery day that they plan to be home.
Amazon recently pledged to eliminate carbon emissions associated with shipments. It aims to make half of its shipments "net carbon zero" by 2030.
"With improvements in electric vehicles, aviation biofuels, reusable packaging, and renewable energy, for the first time we can now see a path to net zero carbon delivery of shipments to customers," said Dave Clark, senior vice president of worldwide operations, in a blog post earlier this month. (The "net zero" designation suggests the company will seek to reduce its direct carbon emissions but also offset them with other actions such as planting trees or capturing carbon.)
Amazon is not replacing any of its faster delivery options with the advent of the new service.
And it has already been encouraging customers to choose slower shipping options through incentives and pricing differences.
The shipping options offered recently on a $17 iPhone case ranged from a charge of $3.99 for one-day shipping to a $5 credit toward another purchase for those willing to wait a week under the company's "No-Rush" shipping option. Two-day shipping is labeled "FREE," but it actually costs $119 a year for the Prime subscription, which also includes several other digital services.
