Walmart, Target, and other stores have sped up their shipping times during the pandemic. But when it comes to speed, Amazon still has an advantage.
As of July, customers received their Amazon orders 1.9 days on average after placing them online, according to data from NielsenIQ provided to Insider Intelligence. Orders from other retailers, including big box chains such as Target and Walmart, reached customers in 4.4 days. Target and Walmart did not respond to Insider's request for comment on its shipping times.
Both Amazon and its rivals have improved their delivery times since October 2020, according to the data.
The data includes all orders shipped to customers, including deliveries to customers to both Amazon Prime members and non-members. The data for other retailers includes orders shipped via USPS, UPS, FedEx, and similar services for over 500 physical and online retailers that NielsenIQ tracks. Orders delivered by services that rely on gig workers, such as Uber, Instacart, and Amazon Fresh, aren't included.
Delivery times have sped up for everything from toys at Christmas to last-minute groceries for dinner, especially as more consumers hung out or worked from home during the height of the pandemic. But even as society opens up again, consumers are still interested in getting their orders quickly, said Sara Lebow, an analyst with Insider Intelligence.
"If you can undercut competition by two to three days, that's huge," she said.
Retailers have used their stores as well as expanded warehouse networks to improve their shipping speed. But Amazon's longstanding focus on ecommerce is tough to beat, Lebow added.
In 2022, for instance, Amazon slowed down growth of new warehouse space as the outlook for the US and world economy got worse. Even so, it added 52 million square feet for the year. That's equal to one-third of Walmart's total warehouse space, Insider previously reported.
"Obviously, other retailers also have a big distribution footprint — Walmart, notably — but Amazon is focused on delivery specifically from its inception in a way that Walmart isn't necessarily," she said.
