By TAYLOR DUNN and ANGELINE JANE BERNABE, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — With only nine days until Christmas, the clock is ticking on shipping.As people race to get their presents shipped to loved ones on time this year amid the coronavirus pandemic and severe weather in parts of the country, Amazon has announced its 2020 holiday shipping deadlines.Amazon announced exclusively to ABC News’ Good Morning America that Wednesday, Dec. 23, will be the cutoff for one-day delivery, free for Amazon Prime members. Thursday, Dec. 24, will be the cutoff for same-day delivery, free for Prime members with a minimum $35 order.Additionally for Prime members in select cities, Dec. 24, will also be the cutoff for two-hour grocery delivery.“Their gifts will get there on time,” John Felton, vice president of Amazon’s global delivery services, told GMA. “We’re delivering up until the 24th. We’ve been hiring for the event we’ve been increasing our capacity and we’ve got lots of options for all types of customers and for sure the procrastinators.”Amazon’s new shipping deadlines come amid several changes that happened this year during the coronavirus pandemic and the demand for home deliveries.In March, Felton said the company had to implement new protocols to keep employees safe from COVID-19. It also said it made big investments to increase its capacity to respond to the increased demand for deliveries.After Amazon Prime Day in October, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon wanted to make sure orders are shipped in time for customers for the holidays, according to Felton.“We wanted to see kind of what the world was going to come to,” he said. “How demand was going, how our capacity was going, to make sure we were successful.”
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