Amazon has just revolutionized its delivery service by launching a one-hour delivery service called "Prime Now." The service is available as an added benefit to all Prime subscribers for a cost of $99 a year. Currently, it is only open in select areas in Manhattan in New York, but is expected to be rolled out to more cities in 2015.
Amazon Prime Now is accessed through a mobile app and is powered by an increasing network of Amazon fulfillment centers. These centers take advantage of high-end technology to speed delivery times for customers. Some of the products that members can have delivered within one hour include shampoo, soap, paper towels, toys, books, cereal and batteries.
"There are times when you can't make it to the store and other times when you simply don't want to go," said Dave Clark, Amazon's senior VP of worldwide operations. "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."
U.S. membership in Prime includes unlimited and free two-day shipping of over 20 million items, access to more than 600,000 books that one can borrow from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, early access to certain Lightning Deals, free unlimited photo storage using Amazon's Cloud Drive, one million songs and hundreds of playlists at Prime Music, and instant streaming access to a massive number of movies and TV episodes at Prime Instant Video.
The new app, which is available on Apple's App Store, Google Play and Amazon Appstore, can be downloaded on Android or iOS. Users have the option to choose either a one-hour or two-hour delivery. The delivery service is available between 6 a.m. and midnight, seven days a week. It includes a tracking system akin to the one used by Uber. The fastest option incurs a charge of $7.99 for every order, while the two-hour option is free.
Amazon will use a part of its new Manhattan building located on 34th Street as a hub for the delivery of orders placed through Prime Now. It's not clear yet which cities will be added to Amazon's Prime Now service areas. Users should expect to get a notification through the app when the service becomes available in their location.
