Recently, Amazon announced that the company is expanding same-day delivery for medication in the USA, serving thousands of new communities and multiple new states. This helps address the growing challenge of medication access, especially in underserved and hard-to-reach areas.
This move, along with others, also highlights that Amazon is prioritizing delivery speed in all areas of the business, which is something all ecommerce brands should take note of.
Amazon Pharmacy Expanding Same-Day Delivery to 4,500+ Communities
In the blog post, Amazon states that it plans to expand same-day prescription delivery to over 4,500 cities, towns, and communities in total across the USA by the end of 2026. This means that Amazon is bringing rapid prescription delivery to over 2,000 new communities this year that didn’t have access to it last year, and even to new states, such as Massachusetts and Idaho.
Amazon hopes that this expansion can fill the gap left by pharmacy closures, transportation barriers, and staffing issues, which all contribute to the growing issue of medication access.
How the Company Delivers Faster
The post also gets into the details surrounding how the company is going to increase the delivery speed of medication throughout the country. Specifically, it mentions using innovative delivery methods tailored to the varied needs of different communities.
For example, in dense urban areas, Amazon uses e-bikes to deliver medication quickly. In suburban areas, the company uses electric vehicles, and in remote locations, it uses options like ferries or even horses.
This fast delivery extends to many remote parts of the country, including areas where the nearest physical pharmacy is nearly an hour away. Instead of these communities relying on services that may take five to 10 days to deliver medication, Amazon uses its wide delivery logistics network to get items there either the next day or within two to three days.
There are also Amazon Pharmacy kiosks in many locations across the country, and the company has collaborated with industry partners to offer better access to medication and more transparent pricing.
The Importance of Rapid Delivery as Customer Expectations Shift
Whether it’s medication, essentials, or even just luxury products, customers are increasingly expecting fast deliveries.
Amazon seems to be aware of this, as the company is prioritizing delivery speed. In fact, in 2025, the company set new delivery speed records and delivered more than 13 billion items same-day or next-day throughout the year. The company has also closed down Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh physical stores, partly in order to strengthen and speed up online deliveries.
With Amazon and other companies/platforms putting so much work and investment into rapid deliveries, ecommerce brands need to take notice. Many customers want their orders as quickly as possible, and if your brand can’t offer that, they may jump ship to a competitor that can.
In fact, quick deliveries are among the most important elements of online shopping for consumers, and the demand for same-day delivery is growing rapidly. If you fail to innovate and offer quick shipping, it may prevent some customers from even considering buying from you.
Whether you decentralize your inventory across different locations, optimize operations at your warehouse, diversify the carriers you use, or automate fulfillment, your brand needs to identify ways to speed up deliveries if you want to keep up with your competition.
