Amazon Brings Quick Commerce Offering to UK

Amazon has launched its first Amazon Now site in the U.K.

That’s according to a recent LinkedIn post from Elisa Michelin Salomon, Amazon’s ops lead for EU quick commerce, and flagged in a report Monday (Jan. 19) by the website Retail Tech Innovation Hub.

“What started in May ‘25 as a few people around a table in Bangalore, discussing how we could learn from India and the UAE and bring quick commerce to Europe, has now become a live service for London customers – with fresh groceries and everyday essentials delivered in as fast as 30 minutes in Southwark area,” she wrote.

The announcement comes weeks after Amazon said it was testing ultra-fast delivery — 30 minutes or less — of groceries and essential items in Seattle and Philadelphia.

“Amazon is utilizing specialized smaller facilities designed for efficient order fulfillment, strategically placed close to where Seattle- and Philadelphia-area customers live and work,” the announcement said. “This approach prioritizes the safety of employees picking and packing orders, reduces the distance delivery partners need to travel, and enables faster delivery times.”

In other Amazon news, PYMNTS wrote last week about the way the company and competitor Walmart had recently “swapped scripts” in their retail rivalry.

For example, Walmart said it was embracing a new standard for agentic artificial intelligence (AI) commerce, enabling shoppers to do away “the friction between want and buy” by letting them browse, personalize, and make purchases directly through conversational AI.

Amazon, meanwhile, had just announced a new 229,000-square-foot megastore designed to combine groceries and general merchandise, “effectively merging elements of a supermarket, a big-box retailer and a showroom,” the report said.

“Against its rival’s backdrop of digital strategy, Amazon’s announcement of a new megastore in Chicago landed with particular force for a company that once appeared ambivalent about brick-and-mortar,” PYMNTS added.

The size alone matters. At 229,000 square feet, the store suggests that Amazon sees physical retail as a critical interface for its ecosystem, not just a complement to eCommerce.

“Physical stores offer immediacy, sensory engagement and local presence that even the best digital experiences struggle to replicate. They also serve as fulfillment hubs, returns centers and data collection points,” the report continued. “In Chicago, a dense urban market with diverse demographics, Amazon will have an opportunity to test how its digital advantages translate into physical space.”