While supply chain issues may delay items you ordered for the holidays, Amazon is confident its investments in logistics, workforce labor, and stock will ensure you get that package in a timely manner.
"We're not seeing that many delays," said Amazon global communications director Rena Lunak. "We're very confident in our ability to ship out our products in a timely manner."
Cheddar News visited the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Robbinsville, N.J., to find out how your order turns from a click of a mouse into a box on your doorstep. The process has many parts, but the company says it is efficient. During Black Friday, it shipped 1,600 items per second.
How Amazon Processes an Order
After a customer places an order online, the product is located by an Amazon Fulfillment Center employee. In certain locations, including Robbinsville, automated robots help bring items to the workers.
That item is sent via a conveyor belt to the packing department, where another person puts it in a box or appropriate shipping container. For oddly-shaped packages, machines sometimes aid with the boxing process. A labeling machine places the address and other necessary information on the box to tell the system where the packages need to end up.
The package then continues through the miles of conveyor belts where it is scanned several times to make sure it's headed in the right direction. In the final stretch, a conveyor belt with attached devices gently shoves the package into the right chute to be sent on its way with the rest of the items headed in a similar direction.
Amazon's Next Steps
A lot of the orders are delivered through Amazon's own fleet of planes, vans, and freight. The company plans to have 85 planes for Amazon Air by the end of 2021 and is working with Rivian to produce 100,000 electric delivery vans by 2030. The first 10,000 will be on the road starting next year.
To keep things flowing, Amazon has also hired for more than 200,000 jobs this year alone, and it has plans to continue hiring globally.
There is more in store for customers as well, said Lunak.
"We have a lot of deals for everybody in the family, whether you're looking for toys and electronics, beauty products, and they'll continue to be on sale throughout the holiday season," she said.
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