FedEx Ground to Offer 7-Day-a-Week Deliveries

FedEx will become the first of the nation’s big three parcel delivery services to regularly deliver to residences seven days a week, starting in January. FedEx Corp.’s domestic e-commerce workhorse, FedEx Ground, typically shifts to six- or seven-day operations amid a deluge of packages during holiday peak season. This fall the shift to seven days will be permanent. FedEx said the decision for seven-day-a-week delivery was made to keep pace with e-commerce, which is projected to double in the next six years. FedEx needed to beef up its service to keep pace with consumer demand for one-day and same-day delivery options, as well as the growing influence of Amazon.com in package delivery.

Total Retail's Take: The delivery wars don't just exist between retailers — e.g., Amazon, Walmart, Target — but carriers as well. FedEx recognized the need to strengthen its service offering to avoid losing market share to UPS, USPS, and Amazon.com, which operates as both partner and competitor to the three parcel delivery services (each delivers Amazon packages). Seven-day-a-week delivery positions FedEx to win last-mile deliveries for online shoppers that have come to expect next-day or in some cases same-day delivery.

“On the topic of last mile, the retail industry is fighting it out to achieve the optimal the speed of delivery, in line with consumer shopping habits today," says Charles Dimov, vice president of marketing at OrderDynamics, a retail order management system. "When the commitments are now one-day delivery, FedEx could have been on the cusp of just being ignored, not having delivery options for Sundays. But when the every-day-of-the-week delivery rolls out in 2020, FedEx will be part of this last mile tug-of-war, and a viable option to get products to customers faster — if a shopper doesn’t opt for click and collect instead.”