Workers at an AEO distribution center in Ottawa, KS (contributed)
American Eagle Outfitters has expanded its offering of free same-day delivery for members of partner ShopRunner to include 50 U.S. locations, up from six cities when the retailer started working with the FedEx-acquired service in October.
During the past year, American Eagle and Aerie have offered free store and curbside pickup, as many retailers quickly stood up the touchless omnichannel tactics when shutdowns started in March of last year. Hundreds of items are available for same-day delivery, which while free for ShopRunner members is $10 per order for all others.
New metros added to the same-day program from American Eagle and ShopRunner include San Francisco, Boston, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. Deliveries are made within hours of order. The initial rollout was in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Columbus, New Jersey, Los Angeles and Dallas.
“AEO’s approach is customer-centric – we leave it to our customers to choose where, when and how they engage and shop with us,” said Michael Rempell, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer of AEO Inc., in a release. “Creating the best brand experiences is our priority and we pride ourselves on being aggressive adopters of new tools and technologies. ShopRunner’s free same-day delivery service allows us to build on our already strong omnichannel delivery platform and offer even more ways for our customers to quickly and easily shop the American Eagle and Aerie brands.”
ShopRunner, which offers guaranteed two-day delivery to its subscribers for $79 a year through a network of fulfillment partners, has been seen as a way to offer retailers a service akin to Amazon Prime. It was acquired in 2020 by FedEx and was rolled into its services division.
Many observers said at the time it was a way for FedEx to bolster its ecommerce offerings after separating from Amazon. ShopRunner has partnerships with more than 100 retailers including well-known names like Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, Chico’s, Under Armour, Kate Spade, Fanatics and Cole Haan.
FedEx said adding ShopRunner’s data-driven marketing and omnichannel enablement, combined with FedEx’s global digital data and logistics intelligence, will give its retail and ecommerce customers “greater control over consumer engagement and the capability to delivery against shopper ecommerce expectations, such as free two-day delivery and free returns,” said FedEx spokesperson Shannon Davis.