Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) shares are trading higher. The company on Tuesday announced a planned expansion of same-day and next-day delivery.
What Happened: Amazon said it plans to accelerate delivery speeds for tens of millions of U.S. customers in more than 4,000 smaller cities and rural communities by the end of 2025.
The e-commerce giant will invest over $4 billion in an effort to triple the size of its delivery network by the end of 2026. Amazon plans to transform existing rural delivery stations into hybrid hubs that serve multiple functions and use machine learning to better predict what customers will want to order to help optimize inventory.
“Everybody loves fast delivery. So, whether you live in Monmouth, Iowa or in downtown Los Angeles, now you’re going to have the same fantastic Amazon customer experience: the ability to get the wide variety of items you need to keep your household running every day, delivered the same or next day,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores.
The planned expansion includes Amazon’s everyday essentials delivered the same or next day, which the company believes are speed-critical items. Amazon said its everyday essentials selection grew more than twice as fast as all other categories in the U.S. during the first quarter.
The company noted that total items delivered on the same day or the next day after an order is up 30% year-to-date compared to the same period last year.
AMZN Price Action: Amazon shares were up 2.25% at $213.17 at the time of publication Tuesday, according to Benzinga Pro. Amazon stock is down about 3% year-to-date. Amazon has a 52-week high of $242.52 and a 52-week low of $151.61.
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