Amazon announced Wednesday (Oct. 15) another step in merging its digital marketplace with the basics of a traditional store by offering U.K. customers the chance to pick up goods the same day of an online purchase.
Pass my Parcel is a new service that will be available at participating stores. Amazon’s pickup services are already available in more than 6,000 stores, but only some provide same-day service. Merchants will have to deal with an earlier morning rush as customers must places orders by 9:45 a.m. to pick up at 4 p.m. Late orders by 7:45 p.m. for next-day pick up is another element merchants must adapt.
Amazon Prime members will be introduced to the service for free until the year’s end and will pay £4.99 ($8) per pickup starting in 2015. The push for enhancing a digital marketplace audience has been a trend for big players like Google.
The announcement also follows Google’s expansion of its Google Express shopping service made Tuesday (Oct. 14) that reveled that the company would expand its same day and next day services to Chicago, Boston and Washington, D.C.
