Amazon announced that subscribers to its Prime service can now receive strawberries, milk, meats, and frozen meals on the same day they place their orders, as the company broadens its rapid delivery choice to include perishable food products.

This is Amazon's newest effort to rival the delivery services provided by Walmart+ and Instacart.

The new same-day delivery service is complimentary for Prime members, who are charged $14.99 monthly or $139 yearly, for purchases exceeding $25. Customers lacking a Prime membership must pay a $12.99 fee, no matter the order size, to access the new service.

Walmart's subscription service, Walmart+, is priced at $98 annually and provides same-day delivery in less than three hours, with certain orders potentially arriving in just 30 minutes.

Amazon customers in over 1,000 U.S. cities—such as Phoenix, Raleigh in North Carolina, and Tampa in Florida—can receive same-day delivery of fresh food products. The business intends to extend the service to 2,300 towns by year’s end.

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In the past, Prime members' orders for perishable groceries were handled by Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market, but they needed to pay an extra $9.99 monthly on their subscription to get free deliveries on grocery orders exceeding $35, as stated on the company's website. The extra service will fulfill orders via its same-day delivery logistics system.

"This marks a major expansion for Amazon's digital grocery service, largely because it's being offered to its massive Prime member base at no additional cost," said Blake Droesch, analyst with eMarketer.

"Notably, Amazon has lowered the minimum order threshold to just $25 - a move that directly threatens Instacart by enabling customers to use Amazon for quick, one-off purchases, a core part of Instacart's value proposition," adds Blake.

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Brian Mulberry, a portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, stated that the updated offer is expected to boost Prime's membership, though he emphasized that maintaining high service quality will be essential for growth.

Today's product update reduces the entry threshold for both Prime and non-Prime users to purchase groceries from Amazon, potentially squeezing the margins of Uber Eats and DoorDash, according to Stephen Ju, an analyst at UBS.