Amazon Expands Again, This Time It's Seattle

Amazon expands again, as it moves closer and closer to providing same-day delivery nationwide. USA Today reported how Amazon has literally come home with the popular service. Seattle is Amazon's hometown, and the web retailer has now implemented same-day delivery of thousands of products there. Prime Now will cover not only Seattle, but also Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland zip codes and more will probably follow.

The fast service is taking the retail market by storm, especially with offering free same-day services in Seattle and California. More cities are set to be added, such as San Francisco Bay Area, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas-Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Tampa Bay, Washington DC, New York, and Atlanta. These are all major cities that the service can ideally thrive in, being they have the economies of scale to make same-day delivery profitable. Prime Now started last December, and will span the US soon enough.

How the service works is Prime Now is currently free for all members, which is performed within a two-hour window. For even faster service, Prime Now one-hour delivery is available for $8. Deliveries are made between 8am and 12am local time, seven days a week. Prime members pay $99 per year for free two-day shipping as well. Each option fits different shoppers and how they define convenience. With tech gadgets within an arms' reach, shoppers can purchase anything from wherever they are. This makes Amazon and other companies position themselves to have their online products accessible from anywhere too.

The article mentioned how Amazon's Prime Now is helping the web-based retailer to compete with big-box retailers like Wal-Mart and Target. Wal-Mart is not only involved in same-day delivery in several US cities, but has also acquired online giant Yihaodian, which provides same-day and next-day delivery in China. It won't be long before we find Wal-Mart offering more same-day delivery in the US. Target is gaining ground online as well, experiencing 26% web sales growth and partnered with Google Express to make their delivery model work.

Macy's is not far behind in the same-day delivery race. In fact, it may be ahead. The retailer expanded into nine more US markets this month. Prior to the holiday season in 2014, Macy's aggressively rolled out same-day delivery in 8 major US cities, which included San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, Houston, Chicago, Seattle, Washington DC, and New Jersey. Now, not only with the new nine markets, Macy's will launch the service in a total of 14 new markets this year, making its' span larger than Amazon's. Both companies are gearing up for the holiday season only a few months away.

Amazon's market reach is compelling other retailers to expand their own. A same-day courier like A-1 Express is a viable option for web-based and physical store retailers to partner with and grow. The Seattle Courier has a national footprint and develops fast implementation for same-day delivery expansion. No matter where a retailer needs to deliver within big cities for their same-day models, A-1 Express can logistically get it there.

Reference: 8.26.15, Yahoo News, Don Reisinger, Amazon's same-day delivery comes to Seattle