Amazon.com has teamed up with the United States Postal Service to include Sunday delivery, a first for both involved, USA Today reported.
The world's largest Internet retailer announced the deal with USPS on Monday, bringing hopes of profit for the postal service, which has been struggling for the past seven quarters, USA Today reported.
Currently, New York and Los Angeles are the first and only to begin receiving Sunday packages, but the deal is set to be available to major U.S. cities like Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix in 2014, according to USA Today.
The USPS has been trying to get Congress to stop mail delivery on Saturdays in order to reduce spending because almost no profit is made with Saturday mail deliveries, the New York Times reported.
Last year, the postal service lost $16 billion, and although mail delivery on Saturday's is non profitable, package delivery is, the Times reported. The new deal with Amazon allows USPS to take some business from its competitors FedEx and United Parcel Service who do not offer Sunday deliveries.
Amazon said Sunday delivery is not attached to an extra charge and will be available for Prime service members as well as non-Prime members who will be able to receive packages on Sunday with the free five to eight day shipping on orders over $35, USA Today reported.
Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service for Amazon, said the added delivery day is all about getting the product to the customer faster,
"The three big pieces of growth for us are selection, lower prices and speed, adding an additional day is all about delivery speed," Clark said in a statement. "An Amazon customer can order a backpack and a Kindle for their child and be packing it up on Sunday for school on Monday."
Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said online shopping delivery is a large opportunity for the USPS and could help bring in profit, USA Today reported.
"It will certainly help," Donahoe said. "The fastest growing segment is the package business, the future of package delivery is a seven-day-a-week schedule. We've got the capacity to do it."
