Amazon’s “Same-Day Delivery” service is expanding again, the company has announced, and will now be arriving a half-dozen more cities and metro areas, including Baltimore, Dallas, Indianapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, and the D.C. metro area. Amazon Prime customers in these markets, and others which already have access to the “Get It Today” option, are able to order select items by noon in order to receive delivery the same day for a $5.99 additional fee.

Amazon’s Same-Day Delivery service runs 7 days a week, and includes things like movies, video games, travel needs, school supplies, family necessities, and more. In the supported markets, customers can filter to see just the “Get It Today” items using an option on the Amazon.com’s homepage left-hand navigation panel. For those who miss the cutoff, a “Get It by Tomorrow” filter can also come in handy, the company notes.

This most recent expansion comes on the heels of the service’s arrival in San Francisco,which took place in May, indicating what appears to be a fairly speedy rollout of this service across the U.S. Same-day delivery is also being offered in L.A., Phoenix, and the Seattle metro area. The Wall St. Journal previously announced the Dallas expansion back in May, as well.

In May, Amazon expanded the ordering hours, too. In previous tests, Amazon had been requiring orders placed by 9:30 AM. The change shows that not only is Amazon able to ramp up new markets quickly for this service, it seems, it’s also figuring out the logistics to make it something that’s actually fairly usable for Amazon customers.

Although the service is priced more attractively for Amazon Prime customers, unlike a number of Prime benefits, Same-Day is not limited to those paying annually for the Prime membership. For those who are not in program, Same-Day Delivery pricing is $9.98 for the first item, then $0.99 for each additional item they order through this service. “More than a million” items are eligible for Same-Day Delivery, the company now says.

Amazon’s Same-Day Delivery Service Area Outpaces Competitors

Amazon’s sped-up delivery times offered through this service fit into a larger trend where consumers are demanding instant gratification when shopping online or on-the-go. While mobile apps like Uber have popularized the market for push-button, on-demand services – in Uber’s case, transportation via black cars or taxis – a number of commerce competitors have been testing the waters with same-day deliveries and store-pickups, when delivery is not feasible.

Ebay, for example, also offers same-day delivery in select markets through Ebay Now, including San Francisco, San Jose, the San Francisco peninsula, New York, Chicago, and more recently, Dallas.

Meanwhile, Google Shopping Express offers same-day service to San Francisco, San Jose, the San Francisco peninsula, New York (Manhattan only), West L.A. and parts of Northern California.

Walmart, of course, has been testing same-day delivery, including grocery delivery, for yearsnow, with same-day delivery of general merchandise available in Northern Virginia (outside D.C.), Philadelphia, Minneapolis, San Jose and San Francisco, while tests of grocery delivery have been underway in San Jose, San Francisco, and Denver – the latter which is also recently began testing same-day grocery pickups at the store, as an alternative.

Target rolled out same-day pickup to its stores, as well, including select (but not fresh or frozen) grocery items, and it’s experimenting with same-day delivery in Boston, Miami, andMinneapolis.

Same-day delivery at Amazon, doesn’t include groceries. Here, the company is moving more slowly, since the service involves shipping fresh produce, meats and frozen foods quickly. The company began experimenting with grocery delivery through Amazon Fresh in Seattle as far back as 2007. Now it serves parts of California, too.

 

Author: Sarah Perez
Source: TechCrunch