Amazon Debuts Fast Prime Delivery in Smaller Cities, Towns and Rural Communities Across U.S.
Amazon is expanding its same-day and next-day delivery services to millions of U.S. customers in more than 4,000 smaller cities, towns and rural areas by the end of this year. After delivering to Prime members at record-breaking speeds in 2023 and 2024, the company is on pace to get even faster in 2025: So far this year, the number of items delivered the same or next day in the United States has increased by more than 30% versus the year-ago period, according to Amazon.
The company explained that beyond speed, the expansion aims to make daily life easier for rural customers, who typically live farther from brick-and-mortar retailers, have fewer product and brand choices, and encounter limited delivery options when shopping online. Prime members have access to unlimited free same-day delivery when spending more than $25 at checkout.
“Everybody loves fast delivery,” noted Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. “So, whether you live in Monmouth, Iowa, or in downtown Los Angeles, now you're going to have the same fantastic Amazon customer experience: the ability to get the wide variety of items you need to keep your household running every day, delivered the same or next day.”
One major advantage of the expansion pointed out by Amazon is that customers can shop Amazon’s everyday essentials, a huge selection of affordable and speed-critical groceries and household items.
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In the first quarter of 2025, the company’s fast delivery speeds helped its everyday essentials selection grow more than twice as fast as all other categories in the United States.
Amazon reported that customers in the 1,000-plus smaller cities, towns, and rural communities where Amazon has already begun offering free same-day and next-day delivery are shopping at Amazon more often and buying household essentials at significantly higher rates: Of the top 50 repurchased items for same-day delivery in these areas, more than 90% are Amazon everyday essentials.
To enable the expansion, the company is investing more than $4 billion to triple this size of its delivery network by the end of 2026; Turning existing rural delivery stations into hybrid hubs serving multiple functions, such as storing inventory on site to enable delivery within hours and preparing packages for final delivery to customers; and using advanced machine-learning algorithms to predict which items will likely be popular with local Prime members, based on their individual needs.
Customers can find out whether their area offers same-day delivery by going online and browsing by category, price point and retail store. Shoppers can also look for “free delivery today” next to product names while shopping on Amazon.
Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2025 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. The company was also named among PG’s Retailers of the Century and appeared on its Most Sustainable Grocers list.
