Amazon.com, Inc. is an American multinational technology company that focuses on e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence.
It has been referred to as “one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world”.
Also, Amazon is one of the world’s most valuable brands. Amazon’s innovation strategy concentrates on capturing employee ideas and prioritizing customers’ comfort.
The birth of Amazon Prime Air:
Whenever we order something online, we often wish it delivered to us super fast. Not just in a week, a couple of days, or the next day, but within 30 minutes of ordering. Relatable?
Thanks to the idea of Amazon’s Daniel Buchmueller, Amazon Prime Air has become a reality. Applying Amazon’s innovation strategy, the employees founded a brilliant idea of Amazon Prime Air.
The amazing delivery system uses drones to deliver products within thirty minutes. Software Engineer Daniel Buchmueller with Gur Kimchi co-founded this innovative idea in 2013. Amazon promoted Daniel from software engineer to Engineering Manager to lead Amazon Prime Air’s “Fly” team.
“I started Amazon Prime Air: What started as an idea over coffee with Gur turned into a real, full-blown Amazon project. If you are passionate about UAVs, embedded programming, robotics, we should talk.”- Daniel Buchmueller.
Results of the innovation:
In the year 2016, Amazon completed its first Prime Air drone delivery successfully. It is believed that aerial delivery soon will be a successful business for the company.
The FAA granted Amazon Prime Air a Special Airworthiness Certificate for training and research of its MK27 drone in June 2019. Almost a year later, the company received an FAA Part 135 air carrier certificate. In fact, the same year, Amazon began trials in several rural areas in Oregon and California. These were still ongoing in the month of April 2022, with about 30 different products available for delivery.
Prime air drone delivery will change the way customers shop online. With super fast delivery options, people would prefer to shop from the comfort of their homes than go to the stores. Consequently, this might have an impact on the local stores. But there is still a long time before we can see the ripple effect. How can brick-and-mortar stores avoid the impact? There are a lot of things that can be done, and the best people to help them navigate are their employees. Believe it or not, frontline workers are much more aware of the problems faced by a business and what can be done to thwart them.
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