Amazon Flex driver Ricardo Escalona works to ship his same-day orders throughout Cyber Monday from an Amazon success middle in Tampa, Florida, on November 27, 2023.
Octavio Jones | Getty Photographs Information | Getty Photographs
Amazon is shutting down a service that permits same-day supply to malls and brick-and-mortar shops, CNBC has discovered.
The corporate has halted any new improvement of the service, known as Amazon In the present day, and can start phasing it out, two folks with information of the matter stated. The folks didn’t wish to be named as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk to the press.
A lot of the program will finish on Dec. 2, the folks stated. Choose retail companions can proceed to satisfy orders with Amazon In the present day by means of January 24, 2025, Amazon advised CNBC.
A small variety of workers will likely be laid off and obtain severance pay, whereas others will likely be moved to different positions inside Amazon, the corporate stated.
Staff who work at Amazon In the present day heard the information Monday at a gathering, the place some staffers had been advised they’d be fired, the folks stated. About 300 workers labored at Amazon In the present day, the folks stated.
The closure of Amazon In the present day is the newest instance of the corporate’s broader cost-cutting efforts.
Since 2022, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been campaigning to chop prices throughout the corporate to satisfy quickly altering macro circumstances. From 2022 by means of 2024, Amazon initiated the biggest layoffs in its historical past, reducing greater than 27,000 jobs. Jassy has taken a harder stance on the corporate’s unproven, higher-priced bets than his predecessor, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Jassy has shut down a number of tasks, together with a telehealth service, a video calling gadget for kids, and a touring treasure wagon.
Launching in 2022, Amazon In the present day will permit retailers promoting on Amazon to supply quick supply from their bodily shops and malls in choose cities. Amazon-contracted Flex drivers, who ship in their very own autos, decide up the packages and drop them off at clients’ doorways inside hours of orders being positioned.
Amazon In the present day was a part of the corporate’s push to get on-line purchases to shoppers’ properties quicker. Amazon continues so as to add extra amenities centered on same-day deliveries in an effort to spice up gross sales and compete with different corporations providing ultra-fast deliveries. That features Instacart and DoorDash, which have expanded past meals and groceries into retail.
In response to this system’s web site, the corporate had a number of retailers affiliated with Amazon In the present day. That record included Workplace Depot; Staples; Petco; PacSun; vitamin and dietary complement chain GNC; and Fabletics, the sportswear model of actress Kate Hudson.
Amazon is working with the retailers it signed up for the service to make sure a easy transition for them, the corporate stated. Amazon added that it continues to prioritize and spend money on quick supply.
The choice to shut Amazon In the present day comes as a shock as Amazon was within the strategy of onboarding different retailers, one of many folks stated. The corporate additionally launched the service to extra retailers at a convention final week.
The service was dearer than conventional supply routes the place Flex drivers can fill their automobiles with packages from an Amazon warehouse, one of many folks stated. Amazon In the present day routes, which the corporate calls “retail deliveries,” sometimes did not fill a driver’s trunk, making this system much less worthwhile for the Flex contractors.