Amazon trained Americans to expect two-day shipping. Then next-day. Then same-day.
Now it wants 30 minutes to feel normal too. The firm is calling the new service Amazon Now.
It's the biggest push the retailer has ever made into fast delivery. The targets are not hard to spot.
Amazon is rolling out Amazon Now in Austin, Denver, Minneapolis, and Phoenix. The service is also growing in Seattle, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Atlanta.
Items that work with it show up on the site with an Amazon Now label and a lightning bolt next to them. The service runs all day and all night in most spots where it's live.
This is not a brand-new idea. Amazon has been piloting Amazon Now since December. It already runs 15-minute drops in parts of Brazil, Mexico, India, and the UAE.
Prime members pay $3.99 per Amazon Now order. They pay another $1.99 if the basket is under $15. Customers without Prime pay $13.99, plus another $3.99 for orders under $15.
The items run from milk and snacks to phone chargers and cold meds. They're things people want fast.
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The clear losers are the apps that already drop food and goods fast. That's Instacart, DoorDash, and Uber Eats. Amazon's 30-minute window beats most of their drop-offs by hours.
Walmart is also in the line of fire. The store chain has spent years telling owners it can deliver to 95% of U.S. homes within three hours.
Three hours and 30 minutes are not the same fight.
To pull off the speed, Amazon is using "dark stores." These are small storage spots, 5,000 to 10,000 square feet. They sit close to where shoppers live. Each one holds thousands of items.
Flex drivers do the last mile in their own cars. Some big cities also use e-cargo bikes.
CEO Andy Jassy told owners the math works. Faster delivery lifts sign-up rates and brings shoppers back more often.
Fast delivery also keeps people out of Walmart and Target. The longer Amazon owns that impulse buy, the more it earns per shopper.
Amazon has been trying to crack drone drops for more than 10 years. That side of the business has hit snags - safety issues, layoffs, and pushback from rule makers. For now, dark stores and Flex drivers are doing the heavy lifting.
Amazon plans to reach "tens of millions" of customers with Amazon Now by year-end. That's up from millions today.
How fast it spreads and what it costs Amazon per order are the two numbers worth tracking.
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