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Amazon offers same-day delivery to Prime members for $5.99 per
order and non-members for $8.99 plus 99 cents per unit. It will
now allow Prime members free same-day shipping on orders over
$35, Greg Greeley, head of Prime, told Reuters.
"We know same-day delivery volumes will grow dramatically now
that we are making it free," he said.
Amazon launched Prime a decade ago offering free, two-day
shipping - at first charging $79, then raising the service to
$99 last year. In 2009 Prime launched same-day delivery and last
year started a one-hour delivery service, Prime Now.
Prime has become the cornerstone of Amazon's growth - and a
testing ground for new services ranging from television programs
and movies to delivery-by-drone.
Earlier this year Amazon said U.S. Prime membership increased 50
percent in 2014. In December, it said customers ordered more
than 10 times as many items via same-day delivery this holiday
season, compared to a year earlier.
The same-day delivery service is already available in cities
such as New York, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay area,
Seattle, Atlanta, Boston, and Baltimore, among others.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose in Chicago; Editing by Jeffrey
Benkoe)
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