During the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, Amazon spent lavishly building out its fulfilment network, literally opening hundreds of facilities in an expansion such as the logistics world has never seen before.
Then in 2023, with ecommerce growth slowing dramatically, Amazon put on the brakes, cancelling a number planned fulfillment centers and even sub-easing some of its extra space.
But 2024 saw Amazon back in “grow the network” mode, and that is continuing in 2025, with an announcement last week that the company is investing $4 billion to build out its fulfillment capabilities in rural and more remote areas.
In a blog post credited to Udit Madan, Senior Vice President, Amazon Worldwide Operations, Amazon explained its plan, noting that it has a focus on small towns across the United States to bring even faster delivery to its millions of customers in less densely populated areas.
“At a time where many logistics providers are backing away from serving rural customers because of cost to serve, we are stepping up our investment to make their lives easier and better,” Madan wrote.
Amazon and other parcel carriers often rely on the United State Postal Service (USPS), which delivers to every US address, to complete the last mile work in low population areas.
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Actually, Amazon’s strategy was laid out in an article last July in the Wall Street Journal, which reported says Amazon “is reaching into the remote corners of America to deliver its packages quicker to customers in rural areas, a push that represents its last frontier of ultrafast delivery in the US.”
The article did not provide a dollar amount for the program, which Amazon did last week with the $4 billion estimate.
The move could take business away from the beleaguered USPS.
Amazon says the strategy will grow its rural delivery network’s footprint to over 200 delivery stations, and estimates it will create over 100,000 new jobs and driving opportunities through a wide range of full-time, part-time and flexible positions in its various logistics buildings and for drivers on the road.
Once this expansion is complete, Amazon says its network will be able to deliver over a billion more packages each year to customers living in over 13,000 zip codes spanning 1,200,000 square miles – equal to an area the size of Alaska, California, and Texas combined.
What’s more, the company says that it actually opened its first rural delivery station in 2020. In 2023, it began scaling its small-town delivery network, and has already seen improvement in delivery speeds by 50% on average.
Estimates are that the USPS currently delivers about 8% of Amazon parcel deliveries - many of them to rural areas.
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