How to try Amazon's new 'ultra-fast' delivery mode

Half an hour isn’t enough time to watch a movie — but according to Amazon it’s enough to get your next order delivered. The company is piloting a new “ultra-fast” delivery service in Seattle and Philadelphia.

People in those cities will be able to get items including milk, eggs, fresh produce and over-the-counter medicines delivered to their door in 30 minutes or less via Amazon Now.

The near-instant delivery will also apply to cosmetics, pet food and some electronics, covering thousands of items, the retail giant said. 

How it works

Those who live in either of the trial areas will see a 30-minute delivery option while shopping on the Amazon app or website. Eligible customers can browse the “thousands of items” available as part of the program, track their delivery driver and leave them a tip.

It doesn’t come cheap. For normal customers, delivery costs start at about $14, plus a basket fee of $2 on orders below $15. Prime members, meanwhile, will have delivery fees starting at about $4 an order, Amazon said.

The new half-hour offering puts it in competition with companies like UberEats and DoorDash. However where those two companies send drivers to local retailers to make a grocery delivery, Amazon said it will hold them in smaller warehouses in its trial areas.

“This approach prioritizes the safety of employees picking and packing orders, reduces the distance delivery partners need to travel, and enables faster delivery times,” the retail giant said in a statement.

Amazon will use “flex” drivers at its Seattle location, reported Geekwire. They are gig economy workers who are not employed by Amazon and use their own vehicles.

Earlier this year, more than 15,000 drivers in California, Illinois, and Massachusetts filed legal claims against the company, claiming the employment status led to unpaid wages and other financial losses.

What it means

The Amazon Now trial comes after the company has been closing a number of its in-person stores, with a handful of Amazon Fresh outlets shuttering in recent months. It also made layoffs at Whole Foods, which it bought in 2017, reported the Daily Mail.

But Amazon has also ramped up its ability to deliver things overnight or on the same day, using networks of smaller warehouses in cities to fulfill orders at breakneck speed. In February, Amazon said it had delivered more than 9 billion items within a day in 2024. And in October, it announced plans to expand same-day grocery deliveries to 2,300 U.S. cities by the end of the year, from 1,000.

Bank of America analysts wrote that while the trial is likely to have low or even negative margins, it could eventually let Amazon compete with large brick-and-mortar retailers like Walmart.

“While this offering is in early test mode, we think Amazon Now is potentially an important step toward Amazon matching or even surpassing the immediacy benefit of in-store purchasing,” BoA wrote in a Tuesday note, per Retail Dive.

If patience is a virtue, Amazon seems determined to phase it out entirely.