Amazon doubles down on fast delivery to beat rivals | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

Amazon has spent years training shoppers to expect packages to arrive faster and faster.

Now, the retail giant is pushing that promise even further through its ultra-fast delivery service and plans to expand it to even more cities in the near future.

The new rollout brings Amazon deeper into a crowded delivery fight with Walmart, Target, Instacart and other companies trying to win shoppers with the speed and convenience of getting everyday essentials.

The move comes as Walmart says its own fast-delivery orders are surging, while Target and Instacart continue to compete for shoppers who want groceries and household goods delivered the same day or within the hour.

Amazon brings 30-minute delivery

Amazon Now, the company’s latest offering, is a service that delivers thousands of items for fast delivery, including fresh groceries, household essentials, health products, baby items, pet products, personal care goods, electronics, and alcohol, where permitted.

In most areas where the service is available, Amazon Now operates 24 hours a day.

The service is now widely available in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, and is also available in parts of several other cities, including Austin, Houston, Minneapolis, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver, and Oklahoma City, according to the company website.

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And Amazon said it plans to expand the service to tens of millions more customers by the end of this year.

Amazon Now is for when you need or want the convenience of getting your Amazon order delivered in 30 minutes or less.

The service is not just about last-minute shopping. It also pushes Amazon more directly into the quick-commerce model used by grocery delivery platforms, convenience stores, and local delivery apps to win customers who need items immediately.

Amazon has delivered 1 billion items same-day or overnight so far in 2026.

Photo by Charles-McClintock Wilson on Getty Images

Walmart is already pushing faster delivery

Amazon’s 30-minute delivery push comes as its biggest retail rival is also trying to make speed a larger part of its everyday shopping pitch.

Walmart has been leaning heavily on its stores, supply chain, and technology investments to deliver orders faster. In its recent earnings report, the company said customers using fast delivery, defined as delivery in under 3 hours, grew by more than 60% year over year.

The retailer also said its investments in technology and supply chain are helping it deliver items even faster, while customers are increasingly turning to Walmart for speed across a broad assortment of products.

That matters because Walmart’s biggest advantage is its physical store network. The company can use its stores as fulfillment hubs close to customers, giving it a strong position in the race to deliver groceries, household essentials, and everyday items faster.

Walmart is also seeing fast-delivery momentum outside the U.S. The company said Flipkart is delivering orders in less than 15 minutes across more than 30 cities in India, while Sam’s Club U.S. doubled growth in club-fulfilled delivery sales.

Against that backdrop, Amazon Now raises the stakes by making 30-minute deliveries a bigger part of Amazon’s retail playbook.

It is part of a larger fight among retail giants to make ultra-fast delivery the norm for grocery and essential purchases.

Target and Instacart are also competing for shoppers who want faster delivery. Target offers same-day delivery through Target Circle 360 and Shipt, sometimes in less than an hour, while Instacart has built its business around quickly bringing groceries and household items from local retailers to customers’ doors.

Together, those services show how much the retail delivery race has changed. Speed is no longer a luxury; it is becoming a way to keep customers coming back and make everyday shopping feel more convenient.

But speed comes at a price.

For Amazon Prime members, it will be $3.99 per order; for non-members, $13.99 per order. An additional fee for small orders under $15 will also apply, at $1.99 for Prime members and $3.99 for non-members.

That pricing structure makes Prime feel more useful for everyday spending, not just occasional online orders.

The company has been trying to capture more routine purchases, especially groceries and household products. Those categories can bring shoppers back more frequently than big-ticket discretionary purchases.

Amazon said Amazon Now uses a network of smaller locations designed for efficient order fulfillment and placed close to where customers live and work. The company said the setup helps reduce delivery distance while enabling faster delivery times.

Amazon delivery speed keeps getting faster

The Amazon Now expansion builds on a broader push to shorten delivery windows across the company. In its recent earnings report, the company said it has already delivered over 1 billion items the same day or overnight in 2026.

Amazon said its fastest U.S. delivery options now include:

Amazon Now
Prime Air drone delivery
1-hour and 3-hour delivery
Same-Day Delivery.

And Same-Day Delivery is available in more than 10,000 cities and towns across the country, including a growing number of smaller towns and rural areas.

The company also said it delivered more than 13 billion items to Prime members around the world the same day or the next day in 2025.

Amazon is no longer competing only on selection. It is betting on how quickly it can become part of a customer’s daily routine, from dinner ingredients to laundry detergent to last-minute travel items.

“Amazon Now complements Amazon’s existing fast-delivery offerings, including 1-hour and 3-hour delivery on more than 90,000 products and Same-Day Delivery on millions of items,” said Udit Madan, Senior Vice President, Amazon Worldwide Operations.

The service was earlier launched in some parts of Tokyo and in eight major cities in Brazil. Additionally, it will expand Same-Day Amazon Pharmacy delivery to around 4,500 US cities by the end of the year, with more GLP-1 options.

This new service could put more pressure on grocery delivery companies, convenience chains, and retailers that have been trying to win customers with faster delivery options.

Amazon already has a massive customer base, a powerful logistics network, and a Prime membership program that keeps shoppers tied to its ecosystem. By pushing into 30-minute delivery, the company is raising expectations for how quickly everyday products should arrive.