Amazon launches same-day delivery service in the UK

[Budfrog]

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Amazon has launched its first same-day delivery service in Britain in a move that is expected to intensify competition in the postal market.
The online retailer will deliver parcels to local newsagents and high street shops within 12 hours using Connect Group, the newspaper distributor.

Called Pass my Parcel, customers ordering online by 7.45pm will be able to collect their package from 6.30am the next morning, or, if ordered by 11.45am, from 4pm the same day. Customers will be notified by text or email that their parcel is at their local shop.

Christopher North, managing director of Amazon in the UK, described it as our “fastest delivery service yet”. It will be available at more than 500 newsagents and convenience stores in the run-up to Christmas, but Amazon plans to expand the service rapidly next year.

The service is a shot across the bows to postal operators including Royal Mail, Whistl, and Yodel, which deliver the majority of Amazon packages. In July the recently privatised Royal Mail admitted that aggressive competition – in part from Amazon, its biggest customer – meant parcels revenue for the full year would be lower than expected.

The UK is the world leader in click-and-collect delivery services. Amazon already has more than 6,000 pick-up locations including the London Underground stations and airports.

But competition is also intensifying for “last mile delivery” – the final leg of a package’s journey to consumers’ doorsteps. Amazon has launched its own delivery network quietly over the past year and Whistl, formerly TNT Post, is launching mail delivery services in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham. It hopes to have reached about a quarter of the UK postal market by the end of next 2015.

It is believed that Amazon has already grabbed more than 3 per cent of the UK parcel delivery market, accounting for about 70m parcels annually. Amazon had been Royal Mail’s largest customer, accounting for 6 per cent of its parcels, or about 60m of 1bn parcels it handles annually.

Quicker delivery times have become the holy grail for ecommerce providers such as Amazon, which are keen to snatch market share from bricks and mortar retailers.

Last year Amazon outlined ambitions to use drones to deliver packages from the warehouse to customers’ hands within 30 minutes in four to five years’ time. Critics were initially scornful of the idea, suggesting it was a publicity stunt, but Jeff Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon, recently unveiled a prototype drone that could carry a 2kg package at up to 50mph.

Delivering its own packages will give Amazon more control over customers’ shopping experience. It can also help contain shipping expenses, which have been rising.

Mark Cashmore, group chief executive for Connect Group, said the Pass My Parcel service would use its existing road and shop delivery network. It will be paid on a per parcel basis. “Over the coming year, we plan to develop and expand the service to thousands more retailers,” he added.

[Lounge Lizard]

"customers ordering online by 7.45pm will be able to collect their package from 6.30am the next morning, or, if ordered by 11.45am, from 4pm the same day" is indeed a very good service, but how much will Amazon charge for it ?

[Chelseablue]

Amazon are taking over the world , scary stuff

[brockleylion]

So amazon provide only 6% of our parcels business leaving there to be 94% for us to grow and develop I remember years ago gus the great universal services folk who were our biggest customer and now as far as I can see they don't even exist. If we can give price reductions in the lead up to Christmas we can see them off in the long term,there money is in sales not in delivery. Even the name they have given the service pass the parcel speaks of it being a child's game nothing catchy nothing new,we do everything they need delivery wise and if we listen to there requirements lets get ahead and stay ahead.

[Bahia Feliz]

All the doom & gloom about losing Amazon parcels and it turns out that they only account for 6% of the parcels we deliver!

[labbloke]

All the doom & gloom about losing Amazon parcels and it turns out that they only account for 6% of the parcels we deliver!

Yeh Bahia the loss of Amazons puny 6% will only cost the jobs of several thousand of our fellow workers. small change indeed.

[The_Wax_Man]

£4.99 per delivery.

[Bahia Feliz]

All the doom & gloom about losing Amazon parcels and it turns out that they only account for 6% of the parcels we deliver!

Yeh Bahia the loss of Amazons puny 6% will only cost the jobs of several thousand of our fellow workers. small change indeed.

That's life I'm afraid labbloke,We are still delivering Amazon items btw,we have been losing them for years yet they still turn up daily!

[Bahia Feliz]

And with natural wastage,retirements,VR's etc,that will account for a large % of these 'thousands' of job losses that you say will happen!
p.s I see you are a mail centre worker,more worrying for you I admit than those in deliveries.

[Bahia Feliz]

So amazon provide only 6% of our parcels business leaving there to be 94% for us to grow and develop .

I see labbloke didn't have a go at you brockleylion

[brockleylion]

Fact based conversation from me on this one I think we can keep the contracts in the future,we have lost amazon In the past and had them back,it was only 5-6 yrs ago we had a shared Christmas advert together. We have the war chest of privatisation money that will see us ahead of them in the long run our sales team just need to get ahead,none of these groups can cope with the volumes we work at. Now the privatisation is through the likelihood of strike action is less which is why they kept using other providers in the first place,I think we should outbid them in london when the underground ticket offices close and use them for the click and collect service for commuters. We should not be scared of weaker opposition or scared by royal mail propaganda we need to establish ourselves as the number one provider in deliverys and click and collect services.

[Rommagic]

UPS deliver for Amazon.