Amazon Now Offers One- and Three-Hour Delivery in Some Areas.
Remember when two-day delivery seemed like a novelty? “Wow, I can order this item on Amazon on Monday and have it delivered on Wednesday? That’s amazing!” Now orders arrive the next day , sometimes as early as 4 a.m. I’m all for convenience, but how much faster does delivery really need to be?
The answer, apparently, is much faster. On Tuesday, Amazon announced two new delivery options for customers in “a growing number of cities and towns”: for more than 90,000 items in the Amazon store, the company will allow you to choose delivery in three hours or less. For those living in certain regions, there will even be the option to receive your order in as little as an hour .
With its new delivery options, Amazon is focusing on items you’d likely expect to find at your local grocery store. This includes “essentials” like groceries, cleaning supplies, health and beauty products, and over-the-counter medications. The product selection is also expanding to include electronics, toys, clothing, accessories, and even home and garden supplies.
If an item is available for delivery within one or three hours, this will be indicated next to its title. You can also search for items that can be delivered in one or three hours, and browse the existing ” Same-Day Delivery Shop ” section to find items that can be shipped that quickly.
Amazon says one-hour delivery is available to customers in “hundreds” of U.S. cities and towns, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Houston, Washington, D.C., and smaller cities like Des Moines, Iowa; Boise, Idaho; and American Fork, Utah. Three-hour delivery is more widespread and available in more than 2,000 cities and towns, including large, medium, and small cities, as well as their suburbs. Amazon didn’t name many of them, but it did list suburbs like Cornwall, Pennsylvania; Harrah, Oklahoma; and Arabi, Louisiana. You can check to see if your region supports these new delivery times on Amazon’s website here .
However, the new delivery times aren’t free. For standard customers, one-hour delivery costs $19.99, and three-hour delivery costs $14.99. Prime subscribers receive a significant discount: $9.99 for one-hour delivery and $4.99 for three-hour delivery.
Amazon is implementing these changes in anticipation of its Big Spring Sale , which begins March 25 and runs through March 31. The company may be counting on some shoppers wanting to get their discounted items as quickly as possible—even if that means paying a hefty premium for expedited shipping.