Amazon.com Inc. has offered Canadian consumers near its shipping hubs in Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia, same-day and one-day delivery since 2014, but Prime members will no longer have to pay a fee for it.
Previously, Prime members shopping Amazon.ca had to pay C$6.99 for same-day or one-day delivery. Now that service is free for Prime members on orders of C$25 or more. For non-Prime members, the fees are unchanged. Amazon charges C$11.99 plus C$1.99 per item for same-day or one-day delivery to non-Prime shoppers.
In Canada, Prime membership costs C$79 annually, or about $60 at today’s exchange rates. Members of Amazon Prime in Canada get two-day shipping on all orders to “most cities”—remote areas are excluded—and online storage of photos and early access to some deals on Amazon.ca.
Amazon says consumers in Toronto and Vancouver can get the fast delivery on more than 1 million products, with delivery by 9 p.m. for goods ordered by noon. Toronto is the largest Canadian city, and Vancouver is the eighth-largest. Collectively, the greater Toronto and Vancouver areas have approximately 8.4 million residents, about 24% of the country’s population.
Amazon has six fulfillment centers in Canada.
In the United States, Amazon offers same-day and one-day delivery at no charge on orders of $35 or more to Prime members in 27 metropolitan areas. More than 1 million products are eligible.
Amazon, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, began to aggressively increase the product selection on Amazon.ca in 2013. That was the same year it began offering Canadians Amazon Prime. As of June 2015, Amazon says Amazon.ca has more than 100 million products for sale. Amazon.ca and Amazon.com, respectively, are the No. 1 and No. 2 most-trafficked retail sites by Canadian consumers, according to Alexa Internet Inc. data. (Alexa Internet is a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc.)
While Amazon does not break out sales to Canadian consumers in its earnings—it lumps Canada sales in with U.S. sales—BMO Capital Markets estimates Amazon generated C$1.9 billion ($1.53 billion) in Canada in 2014, or about 11.8% of total Canadian web sales by BMO Capital’s estimate. This estimate includes sales on Amazon.ca, Amazon.com (the U.S. site) and on all other international Amazon-operated sites.