Amazon.com has added San Francisco and San Antonio to its growing list of metro areas where Prime members can receive their online orders in one hour.
The latest additions bring the list of cities served by the one- and two-hour Prime Now delivery service to 17 worldwide.
Amazon developed the Prime Now program — backed by a nationwide portfolio of 50 distribution centers, 20 sortation depots plus localized hubs — to close the instant-gratification gap with brick-and-mortar competitors. The service is available to members of its $99 a year Prime membership program, and encompasses tens of thousands of eligible SKUs ranging from daily staples like papers towels and milk, to laptops and Kindle tablets.
Messengers deliver the orders by bicycle and car, and Amazon is testing Uber-like flex scheduling for drivers in Seattle.
Yesterday the world’s largest e-tailer also extended same-day Prime delivery service to two more cities, Chicago and Orlando, Fla., for a total of 16 greater metro areas.
In other Amazon news, the company has compiled a curated selection of CE into an online Electronics Gift Guide in advance of the holidays, spanning wearables, gaming, home automation, imaging, IT and under-$100 items
