Amazon is rolling out pick-up points in the US that allow customers to collect their orders within minutes of ordering online.
In its latest push into bricks-and-mortar, the etail titan has launched Instant Pickup locations at five college campuses, with plans to add more sites by the end of the year.
Consumers using Amazon’s mobile app can choose from several hundred items at each pickup point, including snacks, drinks and phone chargers.
Orders ready in two minutes
Amazon employees then load orders into lockers within two minutes and customers are given a bar code to access them.
Amazon’s director of student programmes said: “I want to buy a can of coke because I’m thirsty.
“There’s no chance I’m going to order that on Amazon.com and wait however long it’s going to take for that to ship to me.
“I can provide that kind of service here.”
The move comes just two months after Amazon revealed it had agreed to acquire Whole Foods Market in a €13.7bn deal.
It has also opened a number of book stores in its native US and is piloting cashless Amazon Go grocery stores, which remove checkouts and instead rely on technology to take automatic payment from shoppers.
Amazon has already opened 22 locations across the US for same-day pick-up.
Five college locations
Its Instant Pickup initiative will rely on the same sites, the first tranche of which will open in Berkeley, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Columbus and College Park in Maryland.
Last week, Sainsbury’s launched a free 30-minute click-and-collect grocery service in London as retailers across the globe attempt to compete with Amazon’s rapid delivery proposition.
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