Amazon Prime Now hard put to deliver

I'M sure you heard of Amazon's arrival in Singapore this week. Not only did the e-commerce giant make its much-anticipated move on Thursday into the Republic as a launchpad to South-east Asia, but it also made Amazon history by offering its exclusive ultra-fast delivery service, Prime Now, outside the US for the first time.

Prime Now made its debut in Manhattan in 2014 to users of Amazon's paid subscription service, Amazon Prime. It delivers products ranging from groceries to consumer electronics to one's doorstep in just two hours and at no additional fee.

This is pretty damn impressive, and definitely unheard of in this part of the world.

But going by my experience with Prime Now on Thursday (when my orders took over five hours to reach me) and user complaints (of being told there are no delivery windows available until Sunday), it seems that Amazon must step up to deliver on its Prime Now promise here.

Early on Thursday morning, I downloaded the Prime Now app, along with what must have been an unimaginable number of Singapore shoppers. According to app analytics company App Annie, Prime Now was the most downloaded app in Singapore on the Apple App Store on Thursday.

At 9.09am, I placed an order for four items: a bottle of Beringer Founders' Estate Sauvignon Blanc, a carton of Strongbow Apple Ciders, a pack of Kleenex toilet tissues, and a packet of Beautex wet floor wipes. These cost S$55.75, and delivery was free.

At 9.10am, I was directed to a page where I could select my preferred delivery time. The earliest slot was 12pm to 2pm, which I chose. So much for two hours! By then, the 10am to 11am and 10am to 12pm slots were already unavailable.

At 9.17am, after I had entered my billing details and applied the Visa promotion code (which got me a S$20 discount), I was again directed to a page to select my preferred delivery time. Only this time, the earliest, free-delivery option was 2pm to 4pm, which resignedly, I chose. At 9.18am, my order was confirmed: "Thanks Jac! Your Amazon order is being prepared." The app also showed a map of Singapore with two pins. One was in the West, where Amazon's Mapletree Logistics Hub on Toh Guan Road East is located, and the other was where I lived. The pins never moved till after 2pm.

At 2.25pm, I received a notification that said: "Your Amazon Prime Now order will arrive soon". After launching the app, I saw that a driver had my Amazon order and was headed my way.

At 2.41pm, he arrived at my place. A driver from local logistics firm Riverwood, he was friendly and polite as he handed me my big brown bag. He made sure to ask for my NRIC - a protocol the app had earlier informed me about - as I had bought alcohol.

At 2.43pm, I received a notification that my order had been successfully delivered. So that took a total of five hours and 34 minutes, more than double the two-hour delivery time Prime Now had promised. The wait aside, the entire in-app process from ordering to confirming pick-up was effortless and even enjoyable. The app was quick, seamless and intuitive to use.

That I managed to order and actually receive my items on Thursday was laudable, I later heard. It turned out that demand was so overwhelming that shoppers who placed orders after 2pm on Thursday were told that they would only receive their goods on Friday. As the day went on, the Friday delivery slots filled up fast, and deliveries dragged into Saturday.

Worse, shoppers who attempted to use Prime Now on Friday were notified that delivery services were not available, and that Sunday could be the earliest that they could receive their deliveries.

Asked about the delay, an Amazon spokeswoman said on Thursday: "We are thrilled customers in Singapore love ultra-fast delivery as much as we do. We encourage customers to check back on the Prime Now app soon."

She added that on Thursday alone, "tens of thousands" of items were delivered to customers' doors, testament to the great demand for this much-hyped service.

Prime Now is proof that it has never been easier to be spoilt by technology. The promise of on-demand apps, 5G network and the like have rewired our brains and dramatically transformed our expectations. Nothing is fast enough anymore. Companies now have to grapple with rolling out an exceptional product and sustainably delivering it to their users.