Amazon Restaurants launches in London

Internet Retailing

8th Sep 2016

Amazon has launched a new restaurant delivery service in London, competing directly with the likes of UberEATS and Deliveroo. The service, called Amazon Restaurants, is available through the Amazon Prime app and offers members free delivery on orders of at least £15.00.

More than 180 restaurants have signed up for the Amazon service, which promises one-hour food delivery for customers in select London postcodes. Amazon also promises a price match, so if customers find they have paid a higher price than what is listed on the restaurant’s menu online, they can receive a refund.

Competition in the on-demand restaurant delivery business is heating up. Deliveroo recently launched its 100th city globally and fourth in Australia with an expansion to Perth, and UberEats is looking to expand nationwide in the UK, in addition to the 18 cities around the world where it already operates.

London is the first location outside the US where Amazon Restaurants is available. The service launched in Seattle in 2015 and has since expanded to 13 other US cities.

While Deliveroo and UberEATS may have a more established presence, Amazon Restaurants has the advantage on price. In offering the service to Prime members for free, the e-commerce giant has made Amazon Restaurants hard for customers to ignore. But customer loyalty isn’t everything for food delivery services; competition also exists for the people making those deliveries.

With Deliveroo riders in London recently going on strike, and UberEATS drivers threatening to do the same, it’s not clear how the launch of Amazon Restaurants in the UK capital will play out with workers.