Online retail giant Amazon sure knows you, so it wants to ship your next package before you order it. The Seattle-based company, which said late last year it wanted to use drones to speed package delivery, gained a patent last month for what it calls "anticipatory shipping".
The technique could cut delivery time and discourage consumers from visiting physical stores.In the patent document, Amazon says delays between ordering and receiving purchases "may dissuade customers from buying items from online merchants," the Wall Street Journal reported. Amazon, the WSJ reported, says it may box and ship products that it expects customers in a specific area will want, based on previous orders and other factors it gleans from its customers' shopping patterns, even before they place an online order. Among those other factors: previous orders, product searches, wish lists, shopping cart contents, returns and other online shopping practices. Which means the complete box-set of Monty Python's Flying Circus isn't going to arrive on your doorstep unannounced. It does mean, however, that Amazon may shuffle the product to a distribution center nearer you for faster fulfillment when you inevitably succumb to your love of British comedy and hit the "checkout" button. Amazon has worked to cut delivery times as a way of encouraging more orders and satisfying customers, such as by expanding its warehouse network and making some overnight and even same-day deliveries. Amazon didn't estimate how much delivery time it expects to save, or whether it has already put its new system to work, the WSJ reported. "It appears Amazon is taking advantage of their copious data," Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester Research analyst, told the Journal. "Based on all the things they know about their customers they could predict demand based on a variety of factors." To minimize the cost of unwanted returns, Amazon said it might consider giving customers discounts or even make the delivered item a gift. "Delivering the package to the given customer as a promotional gift may be used to build goodwill," the patent said. Voice of Russia, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Time. Source: Article
