Ahead of the Black Friday and Christmas shopping periods, Amazon South Africa has introduced a new feature that allows clients to pick a preferred delivery slot.

"Customers in major cities can now select their preferred morning, afternoon or evening delivery slots, offering increased convenience," Amazon said in a statement on Tuesday.

Amazon launched retail marketplace operations in South Africa last year. Its launch was regarded as a soft market entry as it didn't - and still doesn't - offer many of the products and services available in the US and elsewhere, including its hardware line-up (Kindle e-readers and Alexa smart speakers, for example) and its Amazon Prime service.

The company said its "multiple-delivery windows" service is available in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town and allows customers to schedule deliveries up to one day in advance and select from up to three time windows: morning (8am to 1pm), afternoon (1pm to 6pm) and evening (5pm-8pm).

The service maintains the current delivery fee structure as same-day delivery, and customers will continue to pay R2 for delivery slot options, with no minimum order value, the company said.

"Customers already love the convenience of our fast delivery - they can order a single tube of toothpaste or a bottle of sunlight liquid, and it will be delivered for free the same day. Now they can choose what time of day their emergency toothpaste will be delivered," said Amazon sub-Saharan Africa MD Robert Koen. - © 2025 NewsCentral Media