Amazon wants to make online shopping as easy as possible. It also wants to facilitate customers making impulse buys in the same way they might in a grocery store or at the Target or Walmart checkout.
Those checkout aisles are filled with items that people love to grab on a whim. You might take some gum, while somebody else will buy that magazine with only content about Taylor Swift, or the one that’s full of Halloween baking recipes.
These aren’t always the smartest purchases, but retailers have gotten very good at getting customers to buy more than they need.
That’s something that has been a little bit clumsy online. In most cases, if you already have an order in and buy something else, that becomes a separate order.
Amazon currently has one way around that: Amazon Day Delivery. In that case, the customer opts to have a bunch of items all delivered on the same day.
In exchange for that, they usually get some form of credit.
Now, Amazon has a new shopping method that’s a lot closer to adding something to your traditional cart on a whim.
Image source: Jens Büttner/picture alliance/Getty Images
Amazon adds one-click add-ons
Amazon’s latest Prime improvement is called “Add to Delivery.” It’s a pretty simple premise that makes it easy for members to add items to upcoming deliveries.
How Amazon’s Add to Delivery works
- Add to Delivery is now available to Prime members using the Amazon Shopping app or Amazon.com on mobile devices.
- With a single tap, members can instantly add eligible items from across Amazon — everything from pantry staples to pet toys, electronics, clothing, books, and more — to upcoming deliveries.
- It’s a fast and free way to avoid creating new orders for last-minute additions.
Source: Amazon
This benefits consumers by allowing more items to arrive in a single delivery, and it should save Amazon money on packaging.
The new feature also includes an “undo” button that allows members to quickly reverse the addition (sort of like Mom or Dad putting the candy bar their kid threw in the cart back before paying for it).
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More on how Amazon Add to Delivery works
- Eligible items will show a blue “Add to Delivery” button on their product detail page. This option is available on the Amazon Shopping app or Amazon.com on mobile devices.
- When you tap the button, the item is instantly added to your upcoming delivery.
- If you change your mind right away, you’ll see an “Undo” option to remove the item immediately.
Amazon is not alone in offering this type of technology, but RetailDive’s Dani James thinks the online giant is doing it better than its rivals.
“Walmart offers the ability to edit some existing orders to add new items within a set timeframe, and Target offers a similar option on some same-day deliveries. Amazon’s new feature is a more simplified one-click solution, in comparison,” she wrote.
Mark Mahaney, Evercore ISI head of internet research, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” that part of Amazon’s edge is its technology.
“People choose Amazon because of price selection and convenience,” he shared.
Wharton Professor Peter Fader thinks Amazon has changed how people think about shopping.
“We’ve just acclimated to the ‘Click and get it out of your mind and just have it show up’ mentality,” he told Inquirer.com.
Timeline of Amazon shopping changes:
- 1999: Launch of 1-Click ordering.
- 2005: Prime introduced, tying free/fast delivery to checkout.
- 2022-23: Rollout of Buy with Prime on third-party sites.
- 2024-25: Transition from Amazon Pay Checkout v1 to v2.
- Aug 2025: Prime Same-Day grocery orders expand.
- Oct. 1, 2025: End of Prime Invitee shipping share program.
- Oct. 2025: Launch of “Add to Delivery” (Prime members can add items to pending orders).
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