How Amazon improved delivery speed through input metrics

by Bill Carr September 22, 2025

Amazon has been working to improve the speed of delivery for more than two decades. How did they do it?

It wasn’t the result of a single initiative or innovation. It was a continuous effort to improve input metrics related to the speed of delivery — the “click-to-deliver time.” This metric was broken down into thousands of controllable sub-metrics that contribute and roll up to reductions in click-to-deliver time.

This was followed by thousands of new initiatives (conceived via the Working Backwards PR/FAQ process) across the entirety of the shopping and fulfillment experience to increase speed while reducing cost and errors.

Many of these initiatives did not work: actual invention goes hand in hand with failure. But, through a relentless commitment to experimentation to improve each of the contributing input metrics over two decades (pushing on the growth flywheel in a consistent direction), Amazon deliveries arrive at your doorstep like magic.

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