Amazon and Argos delivery drivers will be racing each other to customers’ front doors from Friday, as the retailers go head-to-head with a same-day delivery service.
Amazon has launched Prime Same Day, allowing customers of its Prime service to order goods before noon and receive them between 6pm and 10pm.
The service, launched on Thursday and available seven days a week, will initially be open only to customers in London, Hertfordshire and Berkshire, although there are plans to include other areas of the UK in the coming months.
The new service arrived in the same week that the online retailer, which has been blamed for the demise of bookshops, opened its own high street bookstore in Seattle.
Amazon’s same-day delivery service is free for customers who have already paid for its Prime offering, which costs £79 a year after a £30 price hike in February 2014.
Those who have not paid for Amazon Prime can still have their goods delivered on the same day, for a fee of £9.99 per order.
The offer escalates a tit-for-tat battle with Argos, which is due to launch its own free same-day service on Friday.
The high street stalwart was already offering same-day delivery to online shoppers for a £3.95 charge, seen as a challenge to Amazon’s dominance of internet shopping.
The charge will now be temporarily ditched but, as with Amazon’s offer, the free same-day delivery service comes with caveats.
It will only apply to orders over £50 and the offer will end on 24 November, after which the standard delivery fee will revert to £3.95.
Argos, owned by FTSE100 firm Home Retail Group, said same-day delivery would help customers “beat the Black Friday rush” while sitting on their sofa.
Black Friday, which falls on 27 November this year, is a reference to the biggest shopping day of the year, which traditionally comes the day after the US Thanksgiving festival.
The rise of online shopping has also spawned Cyber Monday, three days later, when shoppers can usually expect a deluge of pre-Christmas online-only deals.
“We are the only retailer able to offer same-day delivery nationwide and we’re even happier to provide this service for free to customers until 24 November,” said Argos marketing director Stephen Vowles.
Argos will also return £1 to customers picking up fast-track collection orders during the period.
