Amazon plans to expand 30-minute delivery service to more U.S. cities

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Amazon is preparing to expand a faster-delivery option that targets shoppers’ most time-sensitive needs by promising some items in 30 minutes or less for an added fee, according to the company. The service, called Amazon Now, is built around small order-processing hubs in cities where Amazon says demand can support such quick fulfillment.

Amazon Now first launched in India last June, and the company says 30-minute deliveries are now available in urban areas of Brazil, Mexico, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the U.S., Amazon initially tested the service in Seattle and Philadelphia, and the company said most residents of Atlanta and the Dallas-Fort Worth area now have access. Amazon also said the service is live in Houston, Denver, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Orlando and other cities, with New York City expected by year-end.

Amazon Now hubs are much smaller than traditional fulfillment centers, according to Amazon. The mini-warehouses devoted to the service are about the size of a CVS drugstore and stock about 3,500 products for expedited delivery, including items such as beer, diapers, pet food, meat, nonprescription medications, playing cards and cellphone charging cables. Amazon also said it tailors inventories to each location and uses artificial intelligence and other technology to analyze what customers buy, as well as when and how often.

For pricing, Amazon Now charges start at $3.99 for Prime members, who pay an annual fee of $139, and $13.99 for non-members. Amazon said a $1.99 small-basket fee applies to orders under $15. Amazon’s head of transportation, Beryl Tomay, said customers respond to faster options by buying more from the retailer. “We know that customers love speed and always have,” Tomay told The Associated Press. “What we see customers doing, when we offer faster speeds, are they purchase more from Amazon. And Amazon becomes more top of mind for that or other types of items as well.”

The ultrafast pitch arrives as some consumers and observers push back against rushed delivery, considering environmental effects and the implications for workers who prepare orders quickly. Amazon has framed its approach as operationally different from a simple guarantee, and it is not offering time commitments like those that have caused trouble for other companies in the past. “Amazon won’t be making any time guarantees and instead plans to keep customers who chose the 30-minute delivery option updated on the progress of their orders,” Tomay said.

The competitive landscape includes on-demand food delivery platforms that rely on partners rather than operating the same kind of in-city micro-warehouses. Bruce Winder, an independent retail analyst, said Amazon’s advantage comes from supply-chain capability. “What Amazon brings is their prowess in supply chain,” Winder said. DoorDash, meanwhile, said it does not see Amazon as a direct replacement and cited its own breadth of grocery and retail items available through partners. DoorDash spokesperson Ali Musa said in an emailed statement that DoorDash “has a mission to empower grocers and retailers and augment their existing footprint, not to replace them,” adding, “We win only when they win, which is how we can offer over half a million grocery and retail items in under an hour across the country.”

Amazon is also competing with Walmart’s push for rapid online fulfillment. For an additional $10 on top of standard delivery charges, Walmart offers “Express Delivery” orders from more than 100,000 products that are guaranteed to arrive in an hour, and Walmart CEO John Furner told analysts in February that many customers still receive items in under 30 minutes.

Analysts pointed to other attempts to commercialize extreme speed, including grocery and delivery startups during the COVID-19 pandemic that promised 10- to 15-minute service but folded as operating costs rose, customer loyalty remained low and investor funding dried up. The delivery-speed story also traces to Domino’s, which in 1984 offered free pizza if deliveries missed a half-hour and later changed the policy, with Brad Jashinsky of Gartner saying Amazon should treat the pizza chain’s experience as a cautionary tale. Jashinsky said: “You get in trouble when you start overpromising something like that.”

Some logistics specialists and analysts said Amazon may need enough concentrated order volume to make 30-minute service cost-effective, including people placing orders close together in time and location. Sucharita Kodali of Forrester Research said companies also tend to struggle when costs, customer behavior, and scaling don’t align, and she suggested demand patterns could influence whether the service proves sustainable. Other analysts said the company may find that some shoppers, including members of Generation Z, increasingly opt for no-rush shipping when the items are not urgently needed. Still, Amazon executives have cited early results from India, where they said Prime members tripled their requests for 30-minute deliveries after starting to use the service. Tomay said the U.S. effort was also early. “It’s in early days and time will tell,” Tomay said. “I think that it will be interesting to see how it evolves.”