So far this year, more than 5 billion items have arrived the same or next day globally-a new record.Amazon hit its fastest Prime delivery speeds ever so far this year in the U.S. and around the world, with more than 5 billion items arriving the same or next day globally-an increase of more than 30% year-over-year. In addition to enabling Prime members to get the products they want and need even more quickly, Amazon's accelerating delivery speeds are helping small and medium-sized businesses succeed in our store, with the majority of these 5 billion items delivered on behalf of independent sellers usingFulfillment by Amazon. More than 60% of the units sold in Amazon's store come from independent sellers.In the U.S., Amazon offers more than 300 million items with free Prime shipping compared to one million when the membership program launched in 2005. Tens of millions of our most popular items are available with free Same-Day or One-Day Delivery, which means Primetoday offers 20 times more selection that can be delivered twice as fast as when Prime first launched-giving members more value than ever. Learn more about the benefits of Amazon Prime.We achieved this by focusing on three key initiatives:
Thanks to streamlined operations, these Same-Day Delivery sites can pick and pack customer orders in minutes for fast, reliable delivery. Amazon now offers Same-Day Deliveryin more than 120 U.S. metro areas.
Prime members shopped millions of deals across more than 35 categories, and purchased more items than any previous Prime Day shopping event.
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This is a key enabler of our accelerated delivery times by reducing the transportation distance between our sites and customers. In the first half of 2024, we reduced the distance items traveled between our U.S. sites and the customer by nearly 10% year-over-year.
Combining machine learning with regionalized inventory means more orders can ship from a single local site-reducing transportation distance by placing the right products closer to our customers to fulfill orders quickly. Through scaling this effort in the first half of the year, we increased the average number of items per box in the U.S. compared to the same period in 2023, which reduced the number of required deliveries for these items.
Industry-leading preventative measures, best-in-class technology, air conditioning, and plenty of rest time help keep employees and drivers safe.
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We've been able to deliver our vast selection of products at even faster speeds while continuing to improve safety because our employees and delivery partners who are picking, packing, and driving to customers' houses are doing the exact same thing whether an order arrives the same day, next day, or in two days. The speed improvements come primarily from regionalizing our network and placing products closer to customers, which means items are traveling fewer miles and experiencing fewer handoffs between the time an order is placed and the time it arrives on customers' doorsteps.The safety and health of our employees continues to be a top priority, and we've allocated over $750 million this year for technologies, resources, training, and programs to further improve safety across our network. From 2019 and 2023, we saw a 28% improvement in our U.S. recordable incident rate, and a 75% improvement in our lost time incident rate, measures that help gauge the frequency of serious injuries. Read more about our employee safety.We know Prime members value being able to order from our wide selection and get fast delivery, and we're continuing to innovate and invest to further accelerate delivery speeds across the country and around the world. Prime members can shop from more than 35 product categories with Same-Day and One-Day Delivery, and are purchasing a huge variety of items-from ear buds and coffee pods, to sunscreen and insect traps, and much, much more. Here is a look at some of the most popular items Prime members have ordered for Same-Day Delivery so far this year across the U.S.Next, read about Amazon's largest reduction in plastic packaging in North America to date.
