Amazon Prime Now: one-hour delivery service launched in London

New "instant" delivery option will be available for Prime members

Amazon today issued a new challenge to the high street and rival online retailers with an “instant” one-hour delivery service on thousands of items ranging from DVDs to nappies.

The internet giant said it has signed up dozens of local van and motorbike delivery firms to launch the Prime Now scheme — initially in some east London postcodes. It is planned to quickly spread around the capital and then to other cities by the end of the year.

Customers who are signed up to Amazon’s premium £79-a-year Prime service can order through an app with a guaranteed delivery within an hour for £6.99. There is also a slightly slower but free “same day” service when delivery can be booked in a two-hour time slot between 8am and midnight.

Currently items ordered by Prime members are only guaranteed for next-day arrival. The one-hour and same-day service will start off being available on about 10,000 of Amazon’s most popular goods, including daily groceries such as coffee and wine as well as toys, games consoles and best-sellers in the books, films and music categories. They will be stocked at new warehouses close to the centre of London with the first one at Bow.

The deliveries can be made to an outside location — such as a park bench — as well as more conventional home or office addresses as the app has a map that can be used to pinpoint where you want the driver to go.

Amazon Prime Video exclusives you need to watch

1/8

Christopher North, managing director of Amazon UK, said the one-hour service was designed to help with domestic emergencies when, for example, “you are out of nappies and you don’t really want to go out of the house but you definitely can’t wait until the next day”.

Mr North added: “When I joined Amazon nine years ago the usual delivery time was three to five days. As Prime has grown they have got accustomed to next-day delivery. I’ve never met an Amazon customer who has said ‘I wish it could be a bit slower’.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in