This Christmas, last-minute shopping goes to a new extreme in Denver.
You have Amazon to thank — or blame — for this. After most stores close on Christmas Eve and after children are nestled safe in their beds, Amazon Prime members in Denver can still place an order for a last-minute gift up until 9:45 p.m. and get it delivered before midnight. For free.
“One of the unique things about Prime Now, especially for the holiday season, is because we offer one- to two-hour delivery for customers, we extend the shopping window all the way to 11:59 on Christmas Eve,” said Amanda Ip, an Amazon spokeswoman.
The online retailer expanded its physical presence in Colorado this year — from its first fulfillment center to its new Treasure Truck, which makes surprise neighborhood stops — allowing it to offer new services such as two-hour delivery called Prime Now.
But let’s face it, Denver is among the last major cities to get these features. Amazon has already changed how America shops — and how America’s shops serve customers. Walmart, Target and others also have invested in technology to allow same-day pickup and for some stores to stay open until the 11th hour on Christmas Eve.
“The thing about Amazon is that it’s changing the game for all retailers,” said Melissa Akaka, who teaches marketing at the University of Denver. “But the changes they made, from Prime and getting free shipping, it makes it really hard for other retailers. It makes it difficult to compete.”
Over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the number of people who shopped only online was greater than those who shopped only offline, according to the National Retail Federation. But even more shoppers did both. The organization credited retailers’ investments in technology for helping the industry stay on track to grow sales 4 percent to a projected $682 billion this holiday season.
But making sure technology works so people can shop online is one thing. Not many retailers are exploring — as Amazon is doing — home delivery by drone. Or have developed their own hardware — such as Amazon Key — that gives its drivers access to a customer’s home to drop off packages. Or have persuaded an estimated 90 million U.S. customers to pay $99 a year to join a program such as Prime, which offers two-day delivery at no extra cost. Amazon has shown what can work for the company — and its customers are getting used to this new normal.
“The idea that you can order a package and have it delivered in two hours, we now know this is actually possible,” said Akaka, a Colorado transplant from Hawaii who does much of her shopping online. “But the idea that you can put off your shopping until Christmas Eve, that’s a little scary to me.”
While there has been pushback — REI famously began closing stores on Black Friday in 2015 to nudge people outdoors — Amazon’s influence on competitors has some pushing all the way to the last hour. Kohl’s will be open 24 hours from Dec. 21 until 6 p.m. Christmas Eve.
Dollar General is keeping stores open nightly until at least 10 p.m. — even on Dec. 24. Target goes all the way to the 11th hour, opening at 7 a.m. Christmas Eve and closing at 10 or 11 p.m., depending on the store.
Walmart, which will be open until 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, says demand for its “Pickup Today” orders double in the two weeks before Christmas. So it has added more items for same-day pickup. Stores are also offering curbside pickup, mobile payments and discounts if you pick up online orders at a local store. It has also added blank gift cards in stores so customers can grab one before the store closes and load up a value online later.
Target, too, is in full holiday mode, with some local stores open until midnight this month. The retailer is also pushing its partnership with Instacart to offer two-hour home delivery (not available, however, in Denver) and same-day order pickup. And it is going head to head with Amazon by offering free shipping on a $25 minimum purchase until Dec. 23.
Delivery services also are trying to keep up. The U.S. Postal Service, which has delivered Amazon packages on Sundays over the past few years, is delivering seven days a week.
But even as Amazon may be doing more of its own deliveries this year in Colorado, USPS workers aren’t just sitting around, said David Rupert, a USPS spokesman for Colorado. The number of packages that the USPS plans to deliver nationwide this season is 10 percent higher than last year.
“I don’t know if it (Amazon) is increasing our volume or decreasing our volume. All I know is our package growth is up,” Rupert said. “Colorado is following those (national) trends, and in many cases, the volumes here are even larger than 10 percent. There’s population growth on top of an overall growth in package volume.”
For the record, the USPS delivers on Christmas Day if you plan ahead and pay for it. Priority Mail Express, which starts at $23.75, offers Christmas Day delivery.
Amazon made a heavy public push to control more of its delivery after bad weather and other issues delayed Christmas deliveries in 2013. The company ended up offering refunds to customers who didn’t receive their Christmas orders in time.
Today, the company has two large package facilities in the Denver area with a third on the way. It employs contract workers, the USPS and other carriers to get orders to customers on time. The company also operates a smaller Prime Now hub in north Denver that stocks a limited number of items available for two-hour delivery.
At Prime Now, shoppers typically find stuff such as toilet paper, fresh eggs, HDMI cables and Amazon Echo devices throughout the year. But for the holidays, there are also ugly sweaters, reindeer-antler headbands and Christmas tree ornaments.
“We bring in fresh poinsettias during the holiday,” Ip said. “We definitely curate our offerings. Last year, we noticed different trends in customer habits leading up to the holiday for Prime Now. They still weigh heavily on daily essentials, but as you get close to the holiday season, you see a lot more items like stocking stuffers, a lot of gift wrap, a lot of egg nog.”
The Prime Now sites are smaller than fulfillment centers, which have “tens of millions of items (instead of) tens of thousands” in Prime Now facilities, Ip said. A robotics fulfillment center slated for Thornton next year could mean Denverites get access to millions of items with same-day delivery — a service already available in 7,000 cities and towns nationwide.
“Just from watching the volume of cars driving through my neighborhood, delivering Amazon packages, I would say consumers are just as happy to buy from them as ever,” said Nikki Baird, a Denver resident and managing partner at retail-tech analysis firm RSR Research. “I don’t think it’s a risky bet to predict that Amazon is going to come out a winner yet again this holiday season. In Denver and in general.”
