Amazon has announced it is retiring its standalone Prime Now service, with its app and website shutting down globally by the end of 2021.
Prime Now has been available since 2014 as a way for members of Amazon's Prime subscription service to get items delivered straight to their doors within a few hours for an extra fee.
However, the e-commerce giant is now directing users that want these fast deliveries to the Amazon app and website where a two-hour delivery option will be made available. This also includes Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods, which are both available in the app and website.
The move will also incorporate any third-party retailers or local stores that were offered within Prime Now, such as the supermarket chain Morrisons. Available retailers differed slightly from region to region, but the service was used in more than 5,000 cities and towns and even operated out of dedicated Prime Now warehouses.
"To make this experience even more seamless for customers, we are moving the experience from a separate Prime Now app onto the Amazon app and website so customers can shop all Amazon has to offer from one convenient location," the company's vice president of grocery, Stephenie Landry, said in a blog post.
"In 2014, I wrote a six-page document outlining a service that would allow customers to get last-minute items in about an hour. We even gave the project the internal code name 'Houdini.' In just 111 days, our team took the concept outlined in that six-page document and turned it into Prime Now, which became the foundation for Amazon's ultrafast grocery and same-day delivery businesses."
The change has been planned for some time with pop-up notifications in Prime Now directing users to the new website and app. The service has also been discontinued in India, Japan, and Singapore.
