Rumors that the e-commerce giant was considering a Prime Now website first surfaced last month. The Web presence looks set to bring the service to a wider audience, and could encourage Prime members who haven’t downloaded the Prime Now app, or who prefer to shop on a PC than a mobile device, to take the service for a spin.
Related: Give it a spin for yourself. Try Amazon Prime for free today!
Commenting on the development, Prime Now VP Stephenie Landry told GeekWire, “We have expanded the service rapidly over the last year to new cities, and customers told us that they would want the option to shop on a browser as well as mobile – so we’re excited to expand the shopping experience to primenow.com.”
The Seattle-based company has chosen not to integrate its Prime Now service into its main website, opting instead to give it its own standalone site. At this stage, however, there’s no sign of the pricey ads Amazon was reported to be lining up for brands seeking high visibility with Amazon’s huge base of online shoppers. Two weeks of placement on the new site may cost as much as $500,000, which would also include e-mail promotions sent to Amazon shoppers, Bloomberg reported last month.
Amazon Prime membership costs $99 a year and offers a slew of benefits including access to a huge library of online movies and ebooks. Members in locations served by Prime Now can receive orders within two hours with free delivery, or in an hour for an $8 fee. Prime Now launched in 2014 in a small number of Manhattan neighborhoods, and has since expanded to 27 cities across the U.S.
A growing number of restaurants are also partnering with Amazon as part of the service, delivering ordered dishes direct to customers’ homes in under an hour.
Amazon sells its Prime Now service to shoppers as a chance to “skip the trip” to a brick-and-mortar store, saving both time and hassle. The speedy delivery service further blurs the line between Web-based retailers and physical stores, with expansion plans set to ramp up the pressure even further on the latter.
