Amazon has expanded its Prime Now one-hour delivery services in the UK and USA with new cities, a restaurant delivery option, thousands of new items and deliveries from some local stores in Chicago.
In the UK, the e-commerce giant has further expanded its Prime Now one-hour delivery service to Manchester after launching it in London, Birmingham and Newcastle earlier this year.
Now available in Manchester and selected postcodes in surrounding areas including Wigan, Warrington, Stockport and Oldham, the ultra-fast service offers members of the Prime scheme one-hour delivery on over 15,000 items through a mobile app. Prime Now in Manchester is available for a variety of items on the Amazon website.
Prime Now customers can choose delivery within one hour of ordering for £6.99, or free delivery within a choice of two-hour, same-day delivery slots between 8am and midnight, seven days a week.
“We’re thrilled to expand our one-hour delivery service to Manchester, our latest Prime Now city,” Christopher North, Managing Director at Amazon.co.uk, said. “Prime Now has proved immensely popular in the cities that already have the service and we think that customers in Manchester and the surrounding areas will love it. We expect to see many last minute Christmas gifts ordered through Prime Now between now and the late hours of Christmas Eve.”
Prime Now is made available through Amazon Logistics which empowers independent local, regional and national delivery companies across the UK to deliver Amazon parcels to customers seven days a week. Deliveries will be made from the Amazon Logistics’ delivery station in Wardley.
All Prime members can immediately download the Prime Now app, available on iOS and Android devices, to find eligible delivery postcodes and request notification when the service is available in their area.
In the USA, Amazon has expanded the Prime Now service with restaurant deliveries from local restaurants and food trucks in Austin and Baltimore offering customer for a limited period of time free one-hour delivery on all restaurant orders.
Using the Prime Now mobile app, customers in Austin and Baltimore can view participating restaurants, browse menus, place orders, track the status of their delivery, and watch as the driver travels from the restaurant to the delivery address in real time. Once an order is placed, Amazon drivers deliver the food in an hour or less.
Restaurant delivery on Prime Now is available across 15 zip codes in and around downtown Austin and across ten zip codes in and around downtown Baltimore and will continue expanding restaurant selection in the coming weeks. Prime members can download the Prime Now app or visit amazon.com/primenow to enter their zip code and see if Prime Now is available in their area. In zip codes where restaurant delivery is available, customers will see Restaurants on the home page.
According to Amazon, restaurant delivery on Prime Now offers customers transparent pricing – there are no menu markups or hidden service fees and delivery on all orders is free for a limited time. Customers pay using the information already stored in their Amazon account and orders are backed by Amazon’s customer service.
“Austin is a haven for people who love great music, great weather and great food,” said Gus Lopez, general manager, Amazon Restaurants, said. “That’s a perfect fit with restaurant delivery on Prime Now: we take care of mealtime so our customers have more time for the things they love.”
“Baltimore’s vibrant mix of neighborhoods has created an equally vibrant food scene. We’re excited to offer Amazon Prime customers a fast and convenient way to enjoy some of the city’s best restaurants without having to drive or take a water taxi,” Lopez added.
Just in time for the holidays, Amazon has added 4,000 new items available for one-hour delivery in the USA, ranging from top gift-giving items across toys and electronics to wrapping paper and baking supplies. Starting in Manhattan, Prime Now has added delivery of beer, wine, spirits and items from Eataly to the service.
“In the year since we first launched Prime Now for customers in Manhattan, we’ve grown rapidly to more than 20 metropolitan areas across the U.S. and we are excited to continue to expand our offerings whether that’s adding beer, wine and spirits in Manhattan starting today or continuing to increase the number of local stores and restaurants in the service,” Stephenie Landry, worldwide director of Prime Now, said. “This holiday, we’ve also added thousands of products to Prime Now and we’ll be delivering up until midnight on Dec. 24 – we are a procrastinator’s dream, offering tens of thousands of items that can be delivered right to your door in an hour or less.”
In Chicago, Amazon has expanded the Prime Now service by adding superfast delivery from local stores in the city, in addition to thousands of items offered by Amazon.
“Prime Now has been so popular with Chicago Prime members that we are excited to expand our superfast delivery benefits to include groceries and treats from favorite local stores Plum Market, Sprinkles Cupcakes, and My Fit Foods,” Landry said. “There are times when you can’t make it to the store and there are times when you simply don’t want to go, especially now as customers are busy preparing for the holidays.”
To purchase from local stores, customers will use the Prime Now app, available on iOS and Android devices. Prime Now is currently available in over 20 cities across the country, including Atlanta, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, Portland, and San Diego. Prime members get two-hour delivery for free and one-hour delivery is available for $7.99.
