"Amazon's move to one-day shipping has opened up new avenues of growth for the company," said Cindy Liu, senior forecasting analyst at eMarketer. "It allows them to compete for purchases that shoppers need right away and would otherwise go to a store to get. This puts Amazon in a great position to capture share in new product categories like consumer staples."
And so far, the results speak for themselves. An October 2019 survey from CivicScience points to how much Amazon’s free one-day shipping is paying off. It found that a plurality of US internet users would rather order a low-cost item (less than $5) via Amazon than buy it in-store.
Not only has Amazon's investment in faster shipping helped drive growth, it's helped propel other business segments within the company. The convenience, selection and fast delivery are helping to attract new Prime subscribers, Liu said.
We expect that more than half of US households will have a Prime subscription this year, and that figure will reach nearly six in 10 households by 2022.