Dive Brief:
- Amazon announced March 19 that it is now offering one-hour delivery to customers in select zip codes in Miami and Baltimore. UPDATE: Amazon Thursday added Dallas to its lineup of metro areas where one-hour delivery is now available.
- The service, dubbed Prime Now and launched in December, was previously only available in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
- Available to Amazon's Prime members, Prime Now includes free two-day shipping and two-hour delivery, with one-hour delivery offered at $7.99.
Dive Insight:
While the service is only available to select zip codes in Miami, Baltimore, and now Dallas, Amazon said that it will "expand rapidly" to additional locations in the two cities. The company also said that it will continue to roll out the service to other cities in the U.S. in 2015.
This speedy delivery service is one to keep an eye on, as brick-and-mortar retailers still enjoy the advantage of timely fulfillment when competing with their online counterparts. If Amazon is successful in fulfilling consumer's time sensitive orders (toilet paper, toiletries, diapers, etc.) with this service, physical retailers will need to change their strategy to attract shoppers. This might include adding additional merchandise categories like grocery, or incorporating interactive displays and technology.