Amazon Rolls Out 30-Minute Delivery Service, Starting In Major U.S. Cities

Amazon introduced "Amazon Now," a new 30-minute delivery option that will deliver thousands of items to customers in several U.S. metro areas, the company said. The offering launches in a handful of big markets immediately and is slated to reach many more communities before the end of the year.

The company is making the option available right away in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia and Seattle, with expansion already planned for Austin, Denver, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Oklahoma City and Phoenix. Amazon said it expects the service to reach tens of millions of shoppers across those and other cities as the rollout continues nationwide through the year’s end.

Items eligible for the ultra-fast service will be marked in the Amazon app and on the website so shoppers can easily spot products promised within 30 minutes. Amazon Now will cover a broad range of everyday needs — from fresh produce and dairy to personal care, baby and pet supplies, small electronics and, where allowed, alcohol — and in most markets customers can place orders around the clock.

Prime members receive a discount on the fee structure: Amazon charges Prime customers $3.99 per delivery, compared with $13.99 for people without Prime. Orders below $15 trigger an extra small-order charge, $1.99 for Prime accounts and $3.99 for nonmembers. That flat-fee approach, Amazon says, often works out cheaper for members than rival services that layer on varying delivery charges, service fees, suggested tips and occasional item markups.

To hit the 30-minute target, Amazon is relying on a network of smaller, neighborhood distribution hubs located nearer to customers than its larger warehouses. Those compact sites carry a more limited assortment but shorten driver travel times, which helps speed up fulfillment. The company began trial runs of the faster deliveries last winter in Seattle and Philadelphia; this expansion pits Amazon directly against same-day couriers such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart.

Industry observers say the move raises the stakes for local grocers and meal-delivery firms. "Shoppers increasingly expect instant access, and putting inventory closer to neighborhoods reinforces that demand," said retail analyst Karen Liu of Harbor Point Research. "Smaller players may feel pressure to match speed or to compete on price and selection instead." An Amazon operations executive added that the service is meant to give customers a quick, dependable option when they need an item urgently.

Amazon Now joins the company’s other short-window shipping choices, including one-hour and three-hour deliveries that cover more than 90,000 products and existing same-day options across millions of SKUs. The company has also tested drone deliveries in eight U.S. locations. Last year, Prime members worldwide received more than 13 billion items via same-day or next-day shipping; roughly eight billion of those shipments went to U.S. customers, about a one-third increase from the prior year.