Amazon claims they know their customers so well that they can ship their items before the customer even places the order. The company wants to speed the delivery process, and gained a patent last month for what is called "anticipatory shipping", as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Using previous orders, product searches, wish lists, and even content of the customer "shopping cart", the Journal reported that Amazon may box and ship products that are expected to be wanted by customers.
Sucharita Mulpuru, a Forrester Research analyst, told the Wall Street Journal, "It appears Amazon is taking advantage of their copious data." Based on the amount of information Amazon says they know about their customers, they could possibly even predict the demand.
The company is working extra hard to reduce delivery times so they may influence customers to order more. They hope to better satisfy their customers. They plan to expand their warehouse and make overnight and same-day deliveries.
According to USA Today, to minimize costs of unwanted times, Amazon has considered giving discounts or even using the delivered item as a promotional gift.