Amazon has announced that Prime members will get free grocery deliveries, starting today in London and expanding to millions of members across the UK before the end of the year.

The selection includes meat, seafood, snacks and household essentials, with free delivery in two-hour windows on orders over £40. The minimum order value has also been lowered from £40 to £15.

Until now, Amazon Fresh purchases have required a monthly add-on fee of £3.99 or a £2.99 delivery fee - in addition to the annual Prime subscription fee of £79 a year.

Available from today in parts of the South East - including Woking and Guildford - and rolling out across the UK by the end of the year, Prime members will get deliveries as fast as same-day for orders placed before 9pm in most areas.

Prime members in around 300 postcodes across Greater London and the South East - including Surrey, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire - can do their weekly shop on Amazon Fresh, included in the cost of Prime membership.

Amazon Fresh is also becoming faster in more than 40 postcodes, including Bracknell, Guildford, Maidenhead, Runnymede, Surrey Heath, Windsor, Woking and Wokingham. Prime members in theese areas can now choose delivery in a one-hour window on all orders over £40 for a delivery fee of £3.99.

“Prime members love the convenience of grocery delivery at home, which is why we’ve made Amazon Fresh a free benefit of Prime,” said Russell Jones, country manager for Amazon Fresh UK. “We will keep improving the grocery shopping experience so by the end of the year, millions of Prime members across the UK will have access to fast, free delivery of groceries.”

Commenting on the news, Bloomreach UK managing director Michael Schirrmacher said: “Amazon’s further investment in its online grocery service shows how strong the online grocery sector is right now.

"There has been a flurry of digital innovation in online grocery over the past few months: from Ocado prioritising the most vulnerable and NHS workers to Sainsbury’s brand new queueing app helping shoppers decide when to visit a shop; the market has shown how quickly it’s adjusted to a new world."

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