Amazon has revealed it will start charging Prime members for same-day delivery on some orders from next month.
The ecommerce giant will now charge members an extra £1.99 for orders under £20, despite the perk already being included in the monthly subscription costing £8.99.
In an email, sent to thousands of Prime customers, Amazon said: “Same-day delivery can be selected at checkout, but there will be a fee of £1.99 per delivery for orders under £20.
“The fee for customers who are not Prime members will remain £5.99.”
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The charges will apply from 18 September 2023 while prime members that spend over £20 will continue to get free same-day delivery if it’s available on their orders.
However, the move follows comments by an Amazon spokesperson claiming that same-day delivery is one of its “latest innovations”, according to the 2023 DeliveryX Warehousing Report.
The report stated: “To ensure such speedy delivery, the ecommerce giant is focusing its US warehouse investment on “same- day site” warehouses. Recent reports suggest it has opened around 45 of its smaller warehouses in the last four years and could expand to at least 150.”
Recently, Amazon announced it was increasing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers better understand what customers are saying about a product, without having to read through a raft of individual reviews.
In what the ecommerce giant is hailing as its latest review innovation, the feature is now available to some shoppers in the US across a selection of products.
Amazon’s director of community shopping, Vaughn Schermerhorn, revealed it might roll out the feature to additional customers and categories in the coming months based on customer feedback.
