During the summer, Google began testing its new same-day shipping delivery service, Google Express. Now, mere months after the trial period, the program is full blown. On Tuesday this week, Google Express began offering consumers a subscription that costs $95 a year, or $10 a month to receive free same-day deliveries from a wide range of shops.
The new program competes with the $99 Amazon Prime membership, and other similar delivery services. Retailers available through Google Express include Costco, Target, Smart & Final, Barnes & Noble, Whole Foods and Toys R Us. To use the subscription, one simply visits the Google website and selects products from stores. The orders must be more than $15 before taxes, otherwise users are charged a $3 shipping fee.
The service is currently available in Chicago, Boston, Washington, New York, San Francisco and West LA. Both New York and the Bay Area can also have alcohol delivered. People who are new to the service can try a subscription for three months or pay $4.99 per shipment. If you want same day delivery through Amazon Prime, you’ll be charged $5.99. Also, you can get bulk shopping like Costco done without the hassle of going to the warehouse. You can also get things from localized stores like Whole Foods that makes Google Express more approachable.
Also, another great feature you don’t get with Amazon Prime is you can select the delivery windows when you’d like to have things arrive. There are several other new merchants also being added to the service, including 1-800-Flowers, Nine West, PetSmart, Vitamin Shoppe and Sports Authority. Currently, Google says its same-day delivery reaches 7 million people.
According to TIME, “Google’s same-day shipping looks like a game changer,” of the new program. “Google already dominates search,” points out TIME contributor Brad Tuttle. “If the big expansion of a same-day shipping service proves successful, it could be on its way to dominating online shopping too.” Other critics have also chimed in with glowing assessments of the tech giant’s newest endeavor.
Learn more about Google Express by visiting www.google.com.