With Amazon's New Shipping Plan, Items Could Start Shipping to Us Before We Even Purchase Them!

Consider us impressed—that new 3.1 Phillip Lim tote you've been coveting (i.e. looking at 100 times a day online) could be on its way to your wardrobe before you even take the plunge and buy it! Before Amazon releases the drones, the online retailer could start shipping items it thinks you want prior to you purchasing them. In their latest attempt to revolutionize online shopping, Amazon has patented a method for "anticipatory package shipping," which draws on its massive store of customer data to determine the likelihood a user will make a purchase, and then preemptively sends the package to a shipping hub near their home.

How will Amazon know what to box and ship? They company will look at popular items in a particular area, previous searches and purchases, wish lists, and even how long the user's cursor hovers over an item online. If or when the user does buy the item, their address will be applied to the package in transit and be directed to the new location. Ultimately, the goal of the the program is to cut down on the time it takes your order to get to you, therefore putting the online vendor ahead of its real-world counterparts. This means that 3.1 Phillip Lim tote isn't going to arrive on your doorstep unannounced, but it does mean that Amazon may shuffle the product to a distribution center nearer to you for faster fulfillment when you inevitably succumb to your love of handbags and hit the "checkout" button.

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