On Thursday the online retail giant Amazon.com launched a new shipping service that promises to deliver household products to its Prime customers in Manhattan within an hour. ‘Shipping,’ in this context, means ‘delivery.’
The one hour delivery service includes products such as shampoo, books, toys, batteries, paper towels. It is currently delivering to select areas of Manhattan.
The one hour delivery service is only available to Amazon Prime customers (a service that costs $99 per year).
Those in Manhattan can opt for the one-hour delivery service for $7.99. Prime Now is available from 6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.
There is fierce competition though from other delivery services in the area, such as Instacart, FreshDirect, and Google Express.
The company said that it hopes to roll-out the service to more cities next year.
Dave Clark, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide operations, said:
“There are times when you can’t make it to the store and other times when you simply don’t want to go. There are so many reasons to skip the trip and now Prime members in Manhattan can get the items they need delivered in an hour or less,”
“We’ve long felt that Amazon Prime is the best deal in the history of shopping and now it has gotten even better. Prime members in Manhattan are going to love this service and we cannot wait to roll out Prime Now to additional cities in 2015.”
A portion of Amazon’s new building on 34th Street in Manhattan will serve as a hub for delivery of Prime Now orders.