Drone-based package delivery? Old news. Who needs drones when your items are already halfway to your doorstep? Amazon’s latest patent shows how the company plans to have what you want ready before you even click ‘confirm purchase.’
The system is called ‘anticipatory shipping,’ and according to its description will pre-ship items to addresses where they are most likely to sell.
These locations will be based on user searches, wish lists and geographical location.
The logic behind the process is that once a shopper places an order, the item will already be there or in transit, and rival the time it takes to buy something at an actual store.
The biggest kicker? Once those packages are near you, Amazon will estimate the cost of returning the item if it goes unpurchased. If the cost of returning the item is too high, Amazon will offer the ‘near-proximity package’ at a discounted price dependent upon the return cost or cost of redirecting the item to another location.
While this all sounds great, it’ll be interesting to see how such a complex system system actually works when implemented. Next thing you know instead of that awesome t-shirt you ordered, your Amazon package will contain hamburger earmuffs you confusedly clicked on last night instead. Then again, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.