Amazon extends one-hour delivery to Miami and Baltimore

Amazon announced this morning that customers in Miami and Baltimore will now be able to use the company’s one-hour delivery service known as Prime Now, which represents the first expansion for the service that was previously only available in New York. The service, which offers access to tens of thousands of products from Amazon’s website, is offered as a benefit to current members of Amazon’s Prime annual membership program.

Amazon in December launched Prime Now in Manhattan, allowing customers to order what Amazon dubs “essentials” like household items, toys and books. Users can place their Prime Now orders online, or by using a dedicated mobile application for iOS or Android. The service in New York offered a delivery window of 6 AM to midnight, seven days per week, but Amazon says this morning that Baltimore and Miami customers will have slightly different hours – 8 AM to 10 PM, also seven days a week. One-hour delivery continues to be priced at $7.99, while two-hour delivery remains free.

The company has not disclosed how many customers have taken advantage of the service since it arrived in New York, nor how many orders it has processed to date. However, Amazon does note that it uses advanced technologies designed to speed up order delivery times for customers, referencing one example in New York where it was able to procure a hard-to-find, top-selling toy in just 23 minutes.

The online retailer has been working to expand Prime Now since its late 2014 debut. Last month, for example, the company rolled out the service to the entire island of Manhattan instead of the small zone that was supported initially, and the company today says that Prime Now is live in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. In addition, Amazon says it plans to bring the delivery service to more markets across the U.S. during the course of 2015. It hasn’t pre-announced which cities will be next, but likely it will focus on dense, urban areas where it’s easier to move goods across town quickly.

In Miami and Baltimore, Prime Now is available in select zip codes as of today, but will “rapidly expand” to other zip codes within each city soon, Amazon says.

Source : Sarah Perez - techcrunch
http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/19/amazon-brings-one-hour-delivery-to-baltimore-and-miami/