The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Postal Service offers cheap next-day Sunday delivery
WASHINGTON — As consumers demand ever-quicker package delivery, the U.S. Postal Service wants to boost its business this holiday season by offering what few e-commerce retailers can provide: cheap next-day service with packages delivered Sundays to your home.
Retail giant Walmart says it is considering the Sunday option, which could reshape weekend shopping trips to the mall.
The program, available in 20 major U.S. cities, allows consumers to place online orders with participating retailers before a cutoff time Saturday, the Postal Service said. Postal carriers pick up merchandise from local stores for delivery the following day, similar to the Sunday package deliveries it now handles almost exclusively for Amazon in much of the U.S.
The Postal Service hasn’t disclosed which stores may sign on to the new pilot program, launched in advance of retailers’ most competitive time of the year.
“It’s one of the ideas Walmart is looking at,” company spokesman Ravi Jariwala said, citing the big-box chain’s recent focus on getting goods to shoppers’ front doors quickly. In recent months, Walmart has announced added shipping options to better compete with Amazon, from acquiring a same-day delivery service in New York to testing drop-offs of packages by Uber drivers and Walmart employees.
The next-day weekend service is part of the Postal Service’s aggressive push into the parcel business at a time when its more lucrative first-class mail is declining in the digital age. With Amazon continuing to raise the bar of “free shipping” conveniences, from one- or two-day package arrivals to keyless in-home delivery via couriers, the financially strapped post office is billing itself as the trusted, low-cost carrier that serves every U.S. household.
The expanded Sunday delivery is aimed at consumers like Susan Dennis, 68, of Seattle. Weary of weekend trips to the mall, the retiree says she buys online whenever possible and isn’t wedded to just Amazon, if the product quality is good and the delivery “fast and inexpensive.”
“More Sunday deliveries would be one of the sweetest deals ever — give me the URL and I will buy whatever,” Dennis said.
Bolstered by e-commerce growth and its Sunday operations, the Postal Service will reach new highs this year in holiday package delivery, with nearly 850 million U.S. parcels delivered from Thanksgiving to New Year’s Eve, according to industry tracker ShipMatrix Inc. That 13 percent increase from 2016 would exceed the single-digit percentage growth for UPS and FedEx, putting the post office on track to capture 45.6 percent market share in peak holiday deliveries, ShipMatrix said.
The post office’s growth is due in large part to its established network in the “last mile,” the final and usually most expensive stretch of a package’s journey. UPS and FedEx already subcontract a chunk of their lastmile deliveries to the post office.