The US Postal Service is planning to test a same-day delivery service. The news has been welcomed by pure-play online sellers and multichannel retailers.
The new Metro Post service will be introduced in San Francisco, California in November. Packages received before 2-3pm will be delivered during the evening, Susan McGowan, a spokesperson for the Postal Service, told Bloomberg.
To qualify for inclusion in the delivery service, businesses must have at least ten physical locations nationwide with at least one location in the test area, explained McGowan.
The same-day delivery trial could last up to one year with the postal company planning to expand into additional cities if successful. The Postal Service is currently in talks with Internet retailers with the possibility of working with up to ten sellers during the trial.
The agency is awaiting approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission before proceeding with the delivery tests. Same-day delivery services means competitor price monitoring is now an essential task for online, multichannel and traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers; the need for multichannel and offline retailers to use such pricing intelligence to update prices daily has never been greater. (Oct 16)
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