Internet shopping has, in recent years, become one of the toughest challenges facing small commercial property based retailers, with low prices and huge ranges of stock drawing consumers away from the high street and onto their computers.
In response, stores now tend to implement initiatives such as “click and collect” in order to compete in the field of e-tailing, allowing customers to collect their purchases on the same day and thus managing to beat e-tailers by offering a shorter time between consumers paying for and receiving their purchases.
However, internet giant Amazon has now found a way to make its site even more attractive to consumers by opening a chain of small regional distribution warehouses which will significantly lower the time taken to make customer deliveries. The “Amazon Logistics” centres will utilise the services of small delivery firms such as City Sprint and Transline which could potentially deliver packages to the customer’s door within 24 hours of an order being placed.
So far, seven units each measuring around 50,000 square feet have opened in sites such as Oxford, Milton Keynes, Birmingham and in various locations around London. However, Amazon does not intend to stop there, as the plans are already in motion for an additional four “mini centres” located in the North West, South West, Midlands and Yorkshire.
A spokesman for Amazon claims the move is part of a £1 billion investment into its UK business, and that it will significantly improve the standard of services customers can expect.
He said; “We work with a variety of carriers to deliver the many millions of orders that we dispatch on a weekly basis.
“Amazon measures itself on its ability to deliver items by the estimated delivery date we provide customers, and the delivery performance is very strong.”
One carrier Amazon expects to team up with in the near future is Dutch firm TNT, which has recently announced an expansion of its postal delivery service. After conducting successful trials in three areas of London, which started in April 2012, the company has made the decision to launch in Greater Manchester – a move which will see the creation of 1,000 new jobs in the area.
TNT aims to be both efficient and eco-friendly, and its workers will make deliveries by bicycle in a bid to negate issues such as city centre congestion. Should this venture prove as successful as the London-based trials, TNT hopes to expand further and create 20,000 jobs in the next five years.
While this may be good for employment, Amazon’s initiative could well place further pressure on the high street. With many consumers admitting the only factor standing between them and a conversion to online shopping is the length of time they must wait for their order to arrive, Amazon Logistics will remove a powerful and essential weapon from the high street trader’s arsenal.
