Amazon is putting the kibosh on its little-known same-day delivery program that enabled customers to order products directly from brick-and-mortar stores of retailers like Fabletics and PacSun.
According to the e-commerce giant, Amazon Today will continue offering same-day delivery and in-store pickup from select retail partners through Jan. 24. The bulk of the program will likely unwind in early December, according to a report from CNBC.
Using the program, partner retailers could market their in-store selection on Amazon.com and offer either same-day delivery or pickup. Amazon Flex drivers would collect the packages and deliver them with their own vehicle. Amazon Today emphasized fast fulfillment to local consumers, meaning the retailers could not listed items for nationwide shipping.
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The offering also included real-time inventory management capabilities, out of stock buffers and capacity management controls to help retailers drive incremental order volume at its stores.
In scrapping the service, Amazon claimed it was redundant.
“As we’ve continued increasing the selection available with same-day and one-day delivery, we’ve seen a growing overlap between those programs and Amazon Today, so after careful consideration, we’ve made the decision to sunset Amazon Today,” Amazon spokesperson said.
Amazon first debuted the program in August 2022 without giving it a name, when it signed up retailers including PacSun, Diesel, Superdry and GNC and started in 10 markets before expanding nationwide.
Neil Saunders, managing director of retail consultancy GlobalData Retail, said Amazon Today “seemed like a bit of an unnecessary offshoot” for the tech titan.
“Amazon has increased same-day delivery from its own site, and it has focused programs like Buy With Prime to help retailers with fulfillment,” Saunders told Sourcing Journal. That offering has continually given more third-party retailers access to Amazon Prime members.
Initially launched in April 2022, four months ahead of Amazon Today, the program was built to allow Prime members to shop from other retailer’s e-commerce sites while still using their Amazon account, and getting the perks of free delivery and returns.
Since its launch, the offering has added new retailer-friendly functionalities, including package tracking, expanded returns and 24/7 live chat customer service. Amazon also started allowing U.S.-based Shopify merchants to leverage Buy with Prime in September 2023.
Amazon said 175 people worked on the Amazon Today team. Most of the impacted employees will be transitioned to other positions within Amazon, the spokesperson said. A “small amount” will not be retained and will be provided with severance.
The spokesperson said most of the selection customers currently buy from Amazon Today will continue to be available for same- and one-day delivery.
The cancellation of the program appears to be abrupt, with the CNBC report saying that Amazon was in the process of onboarding other retailers.
Additionally, Amazon Today had a booth at the Shoptalk Fall retail conference in Chicago held Oct. 16-18, promoting the service. The program also integrated with data management platform Feedonomics in September in an attempt to better localize the product offering, since that solution is designed enable retailers to sync location-specific inventory and product updates in real time.
The Amazon Today website is still functioning, with an open request out to retailers looking to sign into the program, as well as technology firms looking to become integrator partners.
Amazon has been on a cost-cutting spree since early 2023 as part of its wider logistics network overhaul, all while it has managed to accelerate delivery speeds to their fastest times ever. In May, the company unveiled that over 2 billion items have arrived the same or next day.
As of February, Amazon lowered its “cost to serve”—which is the cost to get a product from Amazon to a customer—by more than 45 cents per unit in the U.S. compared to the year prior.
According to the CNBC report, costs were a likely culprit, with a source saying that Amazon Today routes did not usually fill up a driver’s trunk, making the program less worthwhile for the Flex contractors. On a more traditional route from an Amazon warehouse, Flex drivers are more likely to fill their cars up with packages.
Amazon expects more cost cuts on the horizon, with a Morgan Stanley report saying the company is planning to let go of up to 14,000 managerial positions by early next year in line with its return-to-office mandate. The investment bank said a move could save $3 billion for the company.
