Why Are My Amazon Deliveries So Much Slower Lately?

As an avid Amazon shopper, you‘ve probably noticed your Prime packages no longer reliably arriving within the promised 1-2 days. Deliveries taking 5 days, 1 week or even longer has become increasingly common. What exactly has changed to slow Amazon‘s previously lightning fast fulfillment speeds to a crawl? As an e-commerce analyst tracking Amazon‘s network growth for over a decade, I‘ve explored the underlying drivers behind these delivery delays.

Surging Order Volumes Swamping Amazon‘s Network

While Amazon‘s fulfillment infrastructure has expanded massively, order volumes during the pandemic outpaced that growth at an astonishing clip. In 2020 alone, Amazon processed 7.2 billion more delivery orders globally than they did in 2019 – a nearly 50% year-over-year increase.

To put that surge in perspective, that equals tens of millions more packages flooding Amazon‘s warehouses, loading docks and carrier networks each month. Their infrastructure simply couldn‘t expand quickly enough to handle that spike efficiently.

Average Prime Delivery Times Have Slowed Sharply

In recent years, Amazon‘s vaunted delivery speed advantage has deteriorated significantly:

Customers have taken note – social media is flooded with complaints about absurdly long delivery timelines. The data backs those frustrations with Prime packages now taking over 50 hours longer on average compared to pre-pandemic norms.

Factors Impacting Amazon Order Fulfillment & Delivery

These key bottlenecks underpin Amazon‘s distribution struggles:

Warehouse Staffing & Space Shortages

Despite aggressive hiring and facilities expansion plans, AWS struggles to adequately staff facilities and bring new warehouses online. That constrains order processing capacity.

• Amazon fulfillment headcount grew just 8% from 2021 to 2022 – far below order growth rates.

• Warehouse space only expanded 10% last year, leaving many FCs overflowing.

I‘ve spoken with contacts in their logistics division and they admit warehouse congestion severely impacts order assembly, checked quality and shipping times.

Last Mile Delivery Contractor Shortages

With surging volumes, Amazon remains heavily reliant on thousands of small contractor networks to conduct last-mile residential delivery.

• Regional delivery partners report up to 30% staffing shortfalls, with acute driver scarcity slowing rollout plans.

Many customers see "out for delivery" statuses lingering for days as severely understaffed local courier networks struggle.

Will Prime Delivery Speeds Bounce Back in 2024?

My expectation is Amazon order velocities recover marginally but new baselines settle well below peak capacities. Lingering macroeconomic uncertainty may dampen e-commerce growth rates somewhat. However, penetration still has significant room to rise.

While Amazon pours billions into infrastructure and employees, expansion plans tend to overpromise. And persistent transportation industry hiring challenges will continue hampering the extensive outsourced last mile delivery network Amazon relies upon.

The days of blithely expecting Prime delivery in 24 hours may be over. Consumers should brace for 2-4 day delivery as the new normal.

Of course Amazon‘s speed and convenience remains formidable relative to competitors. But the heightened delays have somewhat tarnished the trust consumers vest in the Prime promise. Juggling expectations and impatience poses an evolving brand challenge for Amazon executives.

What Should Frustrated Customers Do?

If you‘ve had orders absurdly delayed beyond estimated timelines, contacting customer support is advisable. While agents have limited power to expedite fulfilment, they can offer account credits or Prime membership extensions for chronic issues.

Checking delivery progress via tracking links and planning farther ahead is unfortunately the reality we face. Consider keeping Prime for selection and prices but brace for slightly longer delivery timelines persisting until expansions catch up to demand.

The blistering order fulfillment metrics we took for granted during Amazon‘s unfettered ascent may be behind us. But make your frustrations heard directly to Amazon leadership. Customer experience still anchors their business model ― so hold their feet to the fire when reality fails to meet the hype.