Amazon expands Sunday delivery service across UK

Amazon is expanding its Sunday delivery service to seven UK cities in the face of rising competition in the ecommerce market.

The online retailer began testing a Sunday service in London in December and has now made it a permanent offering. It is also rolling out the option to six further cities, including Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Oxford.

Amazon Prime members, who as part of their annual subscription receive unlimited free one-day shipping, will now have access to Sunday deliveries at no extra cost. Non-prime members will be able to select Sunday as a one-day delivery option and will be charged the usual rate, which can be up to £7.99.

Jamie Stephenson, UK director for Amazon Logistics, says: “Delivery on a Sunday means every day is now an Amazon delivery day and that Prime members can enjoy even more convenience when shopping on Amazon.

”At Amazon, we’re continually innovating on behalf of our customers. We know customers really appreciated the immediacy of Sunday deliveries during the Christmas period and we were able to deliver thousands more parcels in this way in those four weeks.”

Delivery on a Sunday means every day is now an Amazon delivery day and that Prime members can enjoy even more convenience when shopping on Amazon.

The service uses Amazon’s own trucks to make the deliveries, rather than relying on a deliver partners such as Royal Mail or DHL. The UK roll out follows the launch of the service in the US, in cities including New York and Los Angeles, earlier last year.

Online sales accounted for 18.6 per cent of non-food sales in December, according to the latest figures from the BRC, with retailers increasingly looking to speed up fulfilment to take advantage of the growth. Amazon has already opened a number of regional distribution depots at sites around Oxford, Milton Keynes and London aimed at speeding up deliveries.

Elsewhere, eBay has partnered with Argos to offer click-and-collect services and bought delivery firm Shutl with the aim of launching its one-hour delivery service in the UK early this year. High street retailers such as Argos, John Lewis and Next that have invested in improving their click-and-collect and delivery services all posted market-beating sales gains over Christmas.

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