Amazon‘s ongoing goal of delivering every desired item to every person everywhere on Earth took another small step forward this morning with the announcement that Amazon will soon be delivering restaurant carryout in London.
The global eCommerce behemoth has announced it will begin delivering restaurant-made meals to at least some London neighborhoods — thus putting it into further direct competition with the already-present players in London’s perennially crowded food delivery scene. Just Eat, UberEATS and Deliveroo are just a few of the already-established competitors Amazon is gearing up to face.
Not that competing bothers Amazon in the least — it lives to take on (and win) new verticals. The firm said in a statement released earlier today that Amazon Restaurants will be open for those who are already subscribing to Amazon’s Prime delivery service. Further sweetening the offer, Amazon food deliveries come “prepaid,” so to speak, in that it seems they will be covered under the general heading of the Prime service. This means that orders over £15 pounds (about $20) will be free.
The question — and challenge — Amazon faces will be breaking in when so many are already undertaking a similar project. Reuters reported that London’s roads are already filled with bicycle couriers and moped delivery people working for the various food on-demand services already fighting for attention in the U.K.
But Amazon already has a long relationship with London customers and is beginning to develop a solid reputation for last-mile delivery. And if it is the only player in the game not adding an additional delivery charge, it might find that it can get Londoners hungry for its service pretty quickly.
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