Amazon Shipping Can Handle Last-Minute Christmas Sales

Amazon shipping can handle last-minute sales for all those Christmas procrastinators, according to a post the company published on Thursday. And it means last minute! The door has already closed for sellers who rely on standard shipping services, but Amazon can deliver, it boasted.

December 23 is not too late – shoppers can order 15 million items that are eligible for One-Day Delivery (“coast to coast, free for Prime members with no minimum purchase”).

But that’s not all!

On Christmas Eve, shoppers can order from millions of items eligible for Same-Day Delivery, including delivery within hours (“free for Prime members in eligible areas on orders over $35; $2.99 for orders below $35”).

Shoppers can also order free two-hour grocery delivery from Amazon Fresh on December 24th (“reserved exclusively for Prime members in select cities”) or get themselves to one of Amazon’s physical stores: “Whole Foods Market stores, Amazon Fresh stores, Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, and Amazon Pop Up stores are open on Christmas Eve (store hours vary by location).”

But wait, there’s more!

On December 25, shoppers can still save the day: “Give the gift that keeps on giving with online purchases of Amazon eGift Cards and Amazon Prime memberships.”

And it’s never too soon to think about returning gifts, last-minute or otherwise. Amazon reminded shoppers that returns are “free, easy, and convenient,” nationwide.

“Customers can buy with confidence knowing that millions of items on Amazon.com are eligible for free and convenient returns at more than 60,000 locations in the U.S. Amazon also offers fast and easy returns without a box or a label at over 7,000 locations, including Amazon Books, Amazon 4-star, Fresh Grocery, Amazon Go Stores, Whole Foods Market, UPS Store locations, and Kohl’s stores. The network makes it even easier for customers to check returns off their holiday to-do list. Customers simply need to bring the item and the QR code generated after starting their return to their selected return drop-off location—no box, no label, no fuss.”

Thanks to an extended return window this year, Amazon said most items purchased between October 1 and December 31, 2021, have an extended return window with returns available until January 31, 2022.

Online purchases are returned at double the rate of in-store buyers, according to Marcus Shen of B-Stock, which predicts 13.3% of all holiday purchases will be returned.

While Amazon is urging last-minute shoppers to place orders right down to the wire, marketplace sellers may not be due to the consequences late delivery can have on their performance metrics.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.