The eCommerce giant is expanding its Amazon Now service to several new cities following a pilot effort launched late last year.
“Amazon Now is for when you need or want the convenience of getting your Amazon order delivered in 30 minutes or less,” Udit Madan, senior vice president, Amazon Worldwide Operations, said in the announcement. “With thousands of items available for ultra-fast delivery, you can get everything from groceries for dinner, to AirPods before a flight, to household essentials like laundry detergent or toothpaste delivered right to your door.”
The service is “widely available” in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Seattle, and expansion is underway in dozens of additional locations, such as Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver and Oklahoma City, according to the announcement.
The shorter delivery window is made possible by a network of small fulfillment centers “designed for efficient order fulfillment, strategically placed close to where customers live and work,” the announcement said.
Amazon began offering one-hour and three-hour deliveries in several cities earlier this year. The company has been stepping up its delivery efforts as it competes with Walmart, which has said it can deliver products to 95% of U.S. households in less than three hours.
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In a separate report last month, PYMNTS argued that the one-hour and three-hour delivery options are a “Trojan horse service” that could help make Amazon part of consumers’ everyday consumption habits.
“This is less about faster shipping and more about increasing purchase frequency, capturing impulse demand and embedding Amazon deeper into the fabric of daily consumption,” Shauna Bowen, chief digital and transformation officer at Radial, told PYMNTS. “As Amazon expands automated, purpose-built local fulfillment, Walmart will need to invest in automation and operating model changes or absorb higher costs to stay competitive.”
Amazon has also been expanding its delivery services to business customers. Last week, the company began offering fresh grocery deliveries to businesses and said it would open its freight, fulfillment and parcel shipping solutions to businesses other than the merchants that use its marketplace.
