Amazon And USPS Testing Sunday Grocery Deliveries

By Megan Zielinski, contributing writer

Amazon Fresh customers in the San Francisco area now have the opportunity to receive their groceries early on Sundays — just in time to make their family a big pancake breakfast and start a hearty game-day dinner. Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service announced the two-month trial of early Sunday deliveries with help from postal mail carriers.

The trial will last from August until October, with postal workers dropping off groceries contained in Amazon’s insulated storage bags, along with other orders, between the early hours of 3 and 7 a.m. to San Francisco customers.

By incorporating delivery on Sundays, both Amazon and the U.S Postal Service anticipate positive growth in sales and traffic. The Sunday service will give the online retailer a leg-up from competition—satisfying customers all days of the week, transitioning more in-store shoppers to switch over to the simplicity of online ordering, saving customers time and transportation costs as their local mailman will bring their shopping list right to their doorstep. The Sunday deliveries will create more workflow and traffic for the U.S Postal Service, who experienced a lull in the past as more consumers replace traditional billing and snail mail with electronic and digital services. The offset has been balanced out with more consumers taking interest in online shopping, bringing in more deliveries for the Postal Service to deliver.

With the Postal Service delivering over 35 percent of Amazon’s 600 million U.S packages just last year, the U.S Postal Service is Amazon’s prime carrier of transporting Amazon products. During an interview regarding the Post Office carrying Amazon Fresh products on the seventh day of the week, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe stated, "We work with Amazon. They're an excellent, excellent customer and an excellent partner. We'd like to deliver their groceries. As the Postal Service, we visit every house, every day. Why not?"

Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service declared their partnership this past November, to provide Amazon Prime customers with their orders during all seven days of the week in select locations including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, and New Orleans, with plans to roll-out to more regions within the year.  “We’re excited that now every day is an Amazon delivery day and we know our Prime members, who voraciously shop on Amazon, will love the additional convenience they will experience as part of this new service,” said Dave Clark, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide operations and customer service.