Amazon Launches 30-Minute Delivery in Seattle and Philadelphia

Amazon is starting particularly short-term deliveries of orders in the USA for the first time. In two major cities, they want to offer a new “ultra-fast” option for the delivery of parcels, in which the ordered products should reach the customer within just 30 minutes.

In Seattle and Philadelphia, packages arrive in 30 minutes

Amazon customers in their hometown of Seattle and the US East Coast metropolis of Philadelphia can now have certain products delivered in just 30 minutes. The world’s largest online retailer wants to attack other fast delivery services such as DoorDash, Uber Eats and Instacart. As part of the test phase, Amazon initially wants to offer products such as milk, eggs, fresh vegetables and fruit, toothpaste, cosmetics, pet food, diapers, stationery, electronic devices, seasonal products, snacks and associated dips and freely available medicines with fast delivery times, it says Blog entry.

However, customers are also asked to pay for this. Those who are Prime customers can choose the ultra-fast delivery option with an additional fee of $3.99. If you’re not a Prime customer, you’ll have to shell out $13.99. Amazon also charges an additional fee of almost two dollars for small orders valued at less than $15. To enable 30-minute delivery, Amazon uses small, specialized delivery stations strategically located throughout Seattle and Philadelphia.

This means they should be close to potential customers’ places of work and residence, while at the same time protecting the employees involved in processing deliveries and reducing the distances traveled for delivery. Amazon last offered a service called “PrimeNow” in the USA from 2014 to 2021, which enabled delivery of selected products within one hour in certain areas. However, the offer was later discontinued. In the United Arab Emirates, the group has been offering another quick delivery option for over a month: some products there should reach customers in a maximum of 15 minutes.