Google suffers same day delivery setback

The Same Day Delivery story of the season keeps taking new twists and turns as the battle between Amazon Prime and Google Express continues to intensify. Here at samedaydelivery.com we understand all of the nuances of urgent same day delivery so it's very interesting to watch how this story plays out.

Google are ramping up their same day services with more than thirty retailers in select cities allowing consumers rapid delivery of clothing, food, books and electronics to name just a few. The final portfolio of cities for the October phase of Google Express has been revealed with Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C. being added to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Therefore the recent breaking news that three large retailers have changed their mind about the Google plan will be bad news for the nascent project.

Office Depot, American Eagle and Lucky Supermarkets have all opted out, an announcement that will not rest well with Google's plans to build a following in the Same Day Delivery market. To facilitate effective competition Google need as many well regarded retailers as possible to join the program so this defection won't help with that progress. The remaining retailers are all part of a same day shipping program that pays Google a fixed commission for each and every sale. Amazon meanwhile operate a spoke and hub system for their same day distribution by operating mega-warehouses outside of large urban areas.

All of which leaves Antonio Moreno-Garcia, a professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management wondering if Google can compete

"Amazon mainly fulfills orders from their own distribution centers, which allows them to have a better control of their inventory. Google partners with the retailers…and uses their inventory, which requires a level of integration that can be difficult to achieve.”

The reason for the three retailers backing out from the program is at this time unclear but could be tied to the monthly billing rates that customers would pay, hopefully this will become more clear in the week ahead. In related news it has been reveled that Target, another Google Same Day partner are not joining the program in the new cities but instead are researching their own same day delivery services.

There are sure to be many more developments in the weeks ahead which we'll be keeping a close eye on. What is clear is that running first class same day delivery operations requires a deep blend of resources and know-how, a blend that we fully understand. We're experienced in providing market leading same day and next day delivery services throughout the county ranging from courier freight solutions to full truckload and same day air services. As same day freight specialists we appreciate the vital importance of meeting client shipping requirements for each and every same day delivery.