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Journalism of Courage
Amazon has over the past few years developed and patented a technology called ‘anticipatory shipping’, which enables it to package items for a certain geographical area even before a customer has placed an order. The precise delivery address can be added after the order has been placed, and customers in certain places can receive their order in under 30 minutes.
Amazon can ‘anticipate’ orders because it has an abundance of actionable data about its customers, and knows when a customer is likely to buy what. It can use this foresight to get into ‘predictive’ shopping, most probably with the consent of customers.
Amazon has held the patent for anticipatory shipping for several years, but with the latest advances in deep learning and AI, it is now in a position to roll out the technology with significant accuracy.
E-commerce companies have been doing this manually, especially for products bought repeatedly, say, diapers or toilet paper. They would reach out to customers days before a pack might be expected to run out, and offer to send more; or offer a subscription for delivery at pre-defined intervals. With predictive shopping, an e-commerce company uses algorithms that know, based on a customer’s earlier purchases, the product that she will want at a particular point in time, and ships it to her.
Online companies are gradually reducing the distance between warehouses and customers to cut shipping time. Across the world, more hubs are being created to cater to more remote areas. Anticipatory shipping can help keep a product ready closer to a potential customer. In case she wants it, the package is already nearby.
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