It's only been six months since Amazon launched their Prime Now service, which offers delivery of many Amazon products in just an hour. While the service is only available in a few places in the US right now, it has now expanded to its first overseas location. Amazon Now is open for business in parts of London.
Prime Now launched in Manhattan back in December and has since expanded to Baltimore, Dallas, Miami and Atlanta. The quick move to London is somewhat out of the ordinary for Amazon. While the company is successfully achieving global domination in all things retail, they usually wait until they have taken over the US before venturing to other countries.
As in the US the Prime Now service is available only to those who are members of Amazon's Prime service, which cost £79 annually in the UK. One hour delivery costs £6.99 while a two hour window between 8am and midnight is available for no additional charge.
So far the system appears to be working well. While the service is only available in certain London post zones at the moment it would make sense that the plan is to expand now that the initial fulfillment center is in place. Londoners can check availability of the service in their area here.
While many frequent Amazon users in America are waiting for Prime Now to be available for them it makes sense that they would look to major centers overseas as well. Commerce is now truly a global business and the US is not the only competitive market. As more companies begin to look to other parts of the world to grow their business the USA may need to do their own competing in order to get access to these services first.