Amazon said Tuesday that it has started offering faster U.S. deliveries of selected products for a fee, including 3-hour and 1-hour options, as customers increasingly expect quicker shipping. The company said the choices are available to shoppers in more than 2,000 cities, towns and suburban areas, with the service drawing from a speedy-shipment inventory of 90,000 items.
Under the rollout, Amazon said customers can select delivery in three hours for a charge of $4.99 for Amazon Prime members and $14.99 for nonmembers. Amazon also said the company has set up the service so customers can choose faster delivery on tens of thousands of items rather than on a single shelf of products, and that the company is expanding the express-delivery offering after testing it late last year.
Amazon said one-hour delivery is available in hundreds of locations that include major metropolitan areas such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, as well as smaller cities including Des Moines, Iowa, and Boise, Idaho. For the 1-hour option, the company said Prime members will be charged $9.99, while nonmembers will be charged $19.99.
In a statement, Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations Udit Madan said the company saw “an opportunity to use our unique operational expertise and delivery network to help make customers’ lives a little easier while unlocking even more value for Prime members.” Amazon described the move as part of its effort to increase value for Prime while using technology and network changes to reduce delivery times.
Amazon said the express delivery service relies on robotics and artificial intelligence technology to speed up order fulfillment. The company also pointed to regionalizing its U.S. delivery network into eight areas as another factor it says helps reduce delivery times.
The company’s announcement also came as Amazon faces increased competition from retailers including Walmart. Walmart, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, has said it offers same-day deliveries in under three hours to 95% of the U.S. population, compared with 76% three years ago, and it has continued to expand its drone-delivery operations through a partnership with Wing, a division of Alphabet.
Target, meanwhile, has been expanding faster delivery through its partnership with Shipt and by testing new shipping models. Target said it offers same-day delivery via Shipt to 80% of the U.S. population, and it said about 80% of those orders are delivered in three hours or less, adding that Shipt’s annual membership costs $99 per year.
Amazon launched its Prime membership program in 2005, initially offering free two-day delivery on a selection of about 1 million items, including DVDs, CDs and books. The company said Prime now gives members access to more than 300 million items across 35 categories, with tens of millions of products available for free same-day or next-day delivery, while it continues to test an even faster service for deliveries in 30 minutes or less.