Amazon is experiencing some shipping delays as the busy holiday season continues to heat up.
As first reported by Recode, Amazon cited winter storms as well as increased demand as causes of shipping slowdowns. The company said in a statement it is off to a “record-breaking start” to the holiday season, the first since Amazon embarked on the ambitious initiative to make one-day shipping the core delivery perk for Prime.
“We’re serving customers with our fastest holiday delivery speeds ever including Same-Day and One-Day deliveries,” an Amazon spokesperson told GeekWire. “Some deliveries were briefly impacted by weather earlier in the week but we worked quickly to re-balance capacity across our network, setting customers up for a great rest of the season.”
Amazon has undertaken a variety of actions to beef up its shipping capacity ahead of the holiday season, which has broken e-commerce shopping records so far. However, customers on social media have been grumbling this week about slow delivery times.
@amazon @AmazonHelp Everything I’ve searched over the last two days says Prime delivery is Mon, Dec 9. I get some items have delays but how are ALL your items a 6 or 7-day delivery window?? Why am I paying for Prime then?? Fix it please!
— Bharat (@bharatg09) December 4, 2019
Earliest anything on Amazon Prime can deliver to me is Monday, December 9. Are they really that behind?!?!?!
— Quinn Nelson (@SnazzyQ) December 4, 2019
I like how Amazon low-key changed Prime shipping from 2-days to 4+ days. I'm placing an order on Tuesday, and the earliest Prime will get me anything is Monday. Some of us have birthday parties we've procrastinated on and don't have time for Christmas shipping delays. pic.twitter.com/HLuuniFQi3
— Sandra Proulx Rand (@sandra_rand) December 4, 2019
Amazon Prime, and its fast-shipping perks have played a crucial role in the company’s rise to become a top e-commerce retailer. However, Amazon’s promises of one- and two-day shipping actually starts from the moment an item leaves the warehouse, not when a customer orders the item.
As Recode notes, Amazon doesn’t typically acknowledge this distinction, but it has pointed it out when talking to customers about shipping delays on social media.
@kristincorrell Two – day shipping refers to the transit time after an order ships. While we do ship as soon as possible; some items aren't able to ship immediately. ^HW
— Amazon Help (@AmazonHelp) December 4, 2019
Cyber Monday was the company’s biggest shopping holiday ever, Amazon said. It was also a huge day for online retailers in general, with more than $9.4 billion spent on Monday alone, per Adobe’s analytics arm.
Amazon has made significant investments in its fulfillment network this year as part of the transition to one-day delivery. The tech giant will invest $1.5 billion in the one-day delivery initiative alone during the holiday quarter, likely pushing total shipping costs for the quarter above $10 billion.
Recode notes that Amazon is going into this holiday season minus one key delivery partner. Earlier this year, FedEx elected not to renew a ground shipping deal with Amazon.
This year Amazon doubled the number of seasonal hires up to 200,000. It is also experimenting with using temporary warehouse space near its fulfillment centers to give sellers room to stage their inventory and quickly replenish items that are selling fast. Amazon has doubled the number of trailers in its fleet to 20,000 to speed up shipping.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with Amazon’s statement.