AMAZON, NEW E-COMMERCE

Amazon is a leader with e-commerce.  This program ups the ante for competitors as to immediacy.  And what about those companies who think shipping orders that take many days is e-commerce?  And those firms who do not have a well managed supply chain to drive the new supply that is required for the new e-commerce?

Amazon Unveils One-Hour Delivery Service

Program Is for Prime Customers in New York, Includes Over 25,000 Products

ENLARGE

The planned site of Amazon’s store, on 34th Street, will be the a delivery hub for New York City. Keith Bedford for The Wall Street Journal

By

Greg Bensinger And

Greg Bensinger
The Wall Street Journal
 

Chelsey Dulaney

Chelsey Dulaney
The Wall Street Journal
 

Updated Dec. 18, 2014 11:06 a.m. ET

       

Amazon.com Inc. rolled out its Prime Now quick-delivery service on Thursday, starting with one zip code in Manhattan.
The service, which promises delivery in as little as an hour in New York between 6 a.m. and midnight, will expand to other cities next year, the company said.
Amazon will charge $7.99 for delivery within an hour, with two-hour delivery being free. More than 25,000 items are eligible under the Prime Now program, which is only available to customers who pay $99 for the annual Prime membership.

The e-commerce giant had been testing the service with bike messengers for at least a few weeks from a building in midtown Manhattan, opposite the Empire State Building. Seattle-based Amazon has leased the entire building, once the site of a department store, for 17 years to house office space as well as merchandise.

The service, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is relatively simple to use with a mobile device.
After downloading the Amazon Prime Now mobile application, customers can search for the items they need and order them through the app. Amazon then dispatches a bike messenger with the goods to the customer’s door.
Several analysts who tried out the service on Thursday said they got their orders in less than an hour.

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