Amazon is raising the ante with Canada’s e-commerce consumers by offering same day deliveries. They’ve made available hundreds of thousands of items for same day delivery in Vancouver. Here’s how it works. Consumers can place orders as late as noon, seven days a week, with deliveries arriving before 9pm. Can you imagine ordering DVDs, snacks, and video games, for that perfect lazy Sunday? The best part is that same day delivery doesn’t bear heavy costs, here’s the break down:

• Amazon Prime members: $6.99 flat fee per order
• Non-Prime customers: $11.99 per shipment and $1.99 per item

Convenience is a key attribute to customers, and with the holidays rolling right around the corner. Shoppers can procrastinate as late as they want and still get all their Christmas shopping done with just a few clicks and a couple of extra bucks.

However, Amazon is not the only player in the same day delivery game. In September, Walmart started offering free same day shipping in the Greater Toronto area.This is not permanent, but if the service performs well this holiday season, Walmart may consider making it permanent. In 2013, Best Buy was a one of the first major retailers to offer same day shipping in Canada, along with Indigo Books & Music Inc., offering it at a price of $9.99 and $13.95, respectively.

Personally, I haven’t heard of same day deliveries until reading about Amazon’s services. Therefore, I think that having other retailers in on the same day delivery service will help Amazon gain momentum. Simply because Amazon has roughly 5 to 7 percent of Canada’s $21.6 billion retail e-commerce market, according to a retail analyst at BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. Comparably, Walmart has about 1.5%, Best Buy has 1.1%, and Indigo has 0.2%.

Consumers want to be able to purchase goods quickly, conveniently, and receive it instantly. This is the direction e-commerce is heading.