14 DAY TRIAL // In a slightly creepy turn of events, Amazon filed a patent for a new shipping system that predicts what buyers will buy before they actually make the purchase, which should cut down delivery time.
The system that Amazon has in mind predicts what buyers will pick before they send in their orders. Products should be shipped in their direction before users even make up their mind.
Anticipating the location of packages might save Amazon some time by analyzing various “business variables,” but for the user, everything might be somewhat creepy.
Regardless, Amazon seems rather thrilled with the idea that analyzing a user’s historical buying patterns, preferences expressed via surveys, demographic data, browsing habits and wish lists will help it foresee their future purchases. What it will probably going to find more difficult to figure out, however, might be whether a person actually has the money for a particular purchase, or maybe they’ll just postpone it a month until their next paycheck, for instance.
The document takes into account various scenarios for speculatively shipping packages and options to re-route items based on the proximity of other potential customers. There’s even the option to keep the packages in a truck until a customer makes a purchase.
The patent was filed in August 2012 and granted last month, right around Christmas.
Last year, the company unveiled that it had big plans for the next five years, namely deliveries by drones. This option would only be available for purchases made in a limited perimeter around Amazon’s centers.
The items are supposed to be delivered within half an hour after the purchase is made, something that sounds almost too good to be true.
The company could face some issues with the authorities due to the fact that the system is based on drones. There are also additional issues that Amazon hasn’t addressed, such as the way that the company will handle deliveries in apartment buildings.