Online retail giant Amazon has launched fresh food deliveries in the UK in its latest push into the grocery market.
AmazonFresh is available from today to customers in 69 central and east London postcodes who are members of the retailer's Prime subscription service, for an additional £6.99 a month.
The extra charge includes unlimited delivery for orders above £40 but deliveries under the threshold will cost £3.99 each.
Read more: Amazon in food delivery deal with supermarket Morrisons
The arrival of AmazonFresh, which has been operating in the US for nine years, comes after the retailer signed a deal with the supermarket Morrisons, which has agreed to provide wholesale ambient, fresh and frozen products to Amazon despite already operating its own website in partnership with Ocado.
Amazon said customers could now order their full weekly grocery shop including fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, seafood and dairy products from an initial selection of more than 130,000 items.
Major brands include Morrisons, Coca-Cola, Kellogg's, Danone, Warburtons, Walkers and Yeo Valley, while more than 50 London producers such as C.Lidgate, FishWorks, Paxton & Whitfield, Konditor & Cook, Bad Brownie and Daylesford are also involved.
Amazon said it was offering "everyday low prices" and customers could choose one-hour delivery slots between 7am and 11pm seven days a week, with same-day delivery available from 5pm for orders placed by 1pm.
Customers will receive a refund if they are unhappy with the freshness of the products and will receive a free substitute for any ordered item that is unavailable on delivery.
AmazonFresh vice president Ajay Kavan said: "The bar in grocery retailing is exceptionally high. The supermarkets and grocers are amongst the very best retailers in the world.
Read more: Amazon agrees deal to screen Outlander in UK
"We believe that the key to the long-term success of AmazonFresh is to bring together the low prices, vast selection, fast delivery options and customer experience that Amazon customers know and love."
He added: "We are launching with a comprehensive offer in a limited area and will take our time to hone and improve our service based on our learnings and feedback from our customers.
"We will be very methodical and considered in how we roll this service out further in the UK."
Amazon began selling chilled and frozen items via its Prime Now one-hour delivery service in certain areas last September before launching Amazon Pantry in November, which delivers everyday household products to Prime members nationwide for a fee of £2.99 per box.
Read more: Amazon in food delivery deal with supermarket Morrisons
Amazon's expansion comes as the British grocery sector continues to be locked in a supermarket price war, which has seen the Big Four supermarkets slash their prices to protect market share from the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here