Amazon Pledges One-Day Delivery for Top Clients in U.S.

Amazon will spend $800 million to reduce delivery times for top customers to one day from two, according to Bloomberg. The announcement came after the online retailer reported first-quarter profit that exceeded analysts’ estimates.

Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky later put the attention back on Amazon Prime, the subscription program that helped make the company the world’s largest online retailer. Amazon charges Prime customers monthly and annual fees, typically $119 in the U.S., in exchange for shipping discounts and access to music and video programming. It offers free two-day delivery on many items.

That benefit is less of a draw now than when it was first launched in 2005. Established retailers and startups have closed the gap on Amazon’s offer of convenience. Walmart is delivering from its giant store network, as well as enticing people to order items online and pick up in stores. Over the holiday shopping season, Target Corp. made waves by scrapping minimum order sizes to qualify for free shipping.

Amazon’s e-commerce business saw unit sales grow 10 percent during the first three months of the year. That was the lowest ever. Total revenue increased 17 percent, the first year-over-year gain of less than 20 percent in a quarter since early 2015. Olsavsky said faster delivery times will increase the number and types of products customers are willing to buy from Amazon.

Olsavsky didn’t offer a timeline for the project’s roll out, which will begin in the U.S., saying “we expect to make steady progress quickly and through the year.“ He also didn’t outline the extra ongoing costs Amazon will bear to take the program global. Recently, the company started encouraging Prime members to group their orders for delivery on a single day. That helps Amazon consolidate shipping and, if customers follow through, may hold down the cost of the new one-day pledge.

Amazon kept a lid on delivery costs in the period ended March 31, spending $7.3 billion in the quarter. That’s a gain of 21 percent from a year earlier, but well below the pace of the increases seen in recent years. Still, expenses related to the new Prime perk, and the suggestion of more to come in a profit forecast that fell short of estimates, contributed a dour note in Amazon’s otherwise upbeat earnings.

First-quarter earnings were $7.09 a share, the company said in a statement. Analysts had projected $4.67 a share. Sales were $59.7 billion, compared with $51 billion in the period a year earlier, in line with the average estimate.