Amazon adds one-hour delivery in London, bring Prime Now to UK

Amazon has introduced its one-hour delivery service for Prime members in parts of central London, its first service delivery within the hour in the UK.

The company's Prime Now initiative, gives customers in certain areas of the capital the chance to have items delivered to their door within an hour.

It would be expected to extend to all of London and more UK cities by the end of 2015.

Deliveries would need to be worth a minimum of £20 per order, and it cost £6.99 per order for delivery within one hour.

Delivery in a two-hour window was offered at no additional cost between 8:00 am and midnight, seven days a week.

The standard Prime membership allowed free same-day or one-day postage on products sold by Amazon.

The new service also allowed users to tip their delivery driver with a default amount, which users could increase or decrease.

According to Amzaon, its UK business collected the top but "the entire tip will go to the delivery person".

Delivery drivers could also be tracked on the Prime Now app and the service covered 27 departments on Amazon, including electronics.

"This is just the beginning," said Amazon UK managing director Christopher North, Reuters reported.

"London is our first Prime Now city in the UK and we are already working on making Prime Now available in more postcodes in London and beyond."

Amazon Prime, the flagship membership service that the retailer started a decade ago, had emerged as a key driver of Amazon's growth as also a vital testing ground for new services ranging from TV and on-demand video to delivery-by-drone.

The company had launched Prime Now in parts of New York  in December, and expanded the service to other cities, including Baltimore and Miami.