Addison Lee has launched a two-hour delivery service, helping London businesses compete with Amazon.

Unlike other delivery services which give customers all-day delivery windows, AL Now allows London businesses to offer consumers a specific two-hour delivery window; bringing the fight to Amazon

The service is already being used by several major retail clients and is particularly aimed at independent local businesses, providing a faster way to deliver to customers.

Unlike other delivery services which give customers all-day delivery windows, AL Now allows London businesses to offer consumers a specific two-hour delivery window.

It’s already been trialled by firms ahead of Valentine’s Day; new data from Addison Lee finds that almost half (47%) of those celebrating this year want to support local businesses in their community by buying from them this Valentine’s Day. But the findings suggest that barriers to buying local remain. More than half of those who plan to celebrate Valentine’s (54%) said they’d be more likely to shop with local businesses if they offered a quick and efficient local delivery service, while 34% were worried that they wouldn’t be able to pick up Valentine’s gifts this year with shops being shut.

The new AL Now service is the latest to launch from Addison Lee, which offers a range of courier facilities and launched its AL Request service in the last lockdown.

Liam Griffin, CEO of Addison Lee, said: “Since the first lockdown last March, we’ve seen our courier services grow by 30% as shopping behaviour shifted online. At the same time, we have seen shoppers come to expect that their purchases will be delivered at a time and date of their choosing. We created AL Now in response this trend – offering a simple, speedy and seamless delivery solution designed to help London’s local businesses meet changing customer demands.”