Amazon is expanding the scope of its same-day delivery service with a focus on essential items like toilet paper and laundry detergent in a further challenge to traditional supermarket chains.<br />Amazon already offers free same-day delivery of selected goods in more than 80 towns and cities across the UK to Prime members when orders worth £20 or more are placed.<br /><br />At the company’s Delivering The Future event in Dortmund on Wednesday, Amazon announced it would be bringing same-day delivery services to 20 additional locations around Europe in the next 12 months and also expanding a new ‘fast delivery’ model operating in Madrid in which customers in select postcodes can order products as late as 6.15pm and still receive them the same evening.<br /><br />The Madrid model will be rolled out to an area of London this month and to parts of Munich, Berlin and Milan later this year.<br /><br />Rocco Braeuniger, Vice President for Amazon’s stores in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and EU Expansion Countries, told the Dortmund event: “One category we know shoppers shop regularly for is everyday essentials – toilet paper, pet food or laundry detergent.<br /><br />"Many use our ‘Subscribe and Save’ feature to replenish these items, thus removing the hassle of reordering and receiving additional savings,<br /><br />"But we also know many customers need everyday essential items fast, often on the same day. In Q1 this year, we delivered over 20 million essentials with same-day delivery across Europe. That’s an increase of over 80 per cent on Q1 from last year.<br /><br />"Fast delivery must be done safely, sustainably and at scale. We can deliver faster because we have invested in advanced technology including AI and machine learning across our operations."<br /><br />Amazon already has a partnership with Bradford-headquartered Morrisons offering same-day delivery of the supermarket’s groceries, with similar arrangements in place with Iceland and Co-op. Amazon itself has 19 of its own Amazon Fresh physical convenience stores in the London area but has closed several further branches in recent years.<br /><br />Speaking to reporters after his announcement, Mr Braeuniger said the expansion of same-day delivery services could ultimately change how people plan their shopping.<br /><br />"For me success is making the customer love the service and the service keeps growing organically,” he said.<br /><br />"They don’t think on Monday, ‘What will I need on Wednesday?’, they think on Wednesday, ‘What do I need today?’<br /><br />"You can really change [how] customers shop and we have done this already throughout the course of Amazon.<br /><br />"We are really well set up, there is a lot of experimentation going on. I’m really confident there will be a great focus on the way we think about shopping.<br /><br />"We are investing in giving customers a choice.”<br /><br />A recent House of Commons research briefing noted online sales make up more than 25 per cent of retail sales in the UK – well above the rates recorded in Europe and the US.
