Amazon gears up to deliver biggest Christmas ever, expanding hiring plans to now create 3,500 new permanent UK jobs this year
Plan to create a further 1,000+ jobs by end of 2016 in addition to 2,500 jobs announced earlier this year spanning Head Office, R&D Centres, Customer Service Centre, Fulfilment Centres, Fashion Photography Studio and AWS
Growth driven by investments in innovation, corporate functions, new AWS Data Centre Region, new fulfilment centres in Manchester and Leicestershire, and rollout of offerings including ultra-fast Prime Now, now one-year old and available to more than 30% of the UK population
Amazon.co.uk Summer 2016 Trends Report reveals latest shopping and entertainment habits across Britain
LONDON—6 July 2016— Amazon today announced plans to create a further 1,000 permanent jobs across the UK this year, on top of 2,500 permanent roles previously announced in January, in preparation for the festive season. This includes resourcing Amazon’s fastest delivery service Prime Now, which a year after launch is now available to more than 30% of the UK population. The announcement coincided with the release of amazon.co.uk’s bi-annual shopping and entertainment trends report, which highlights popular products from its selection of more than 150 million items across more than 35 product categories.
Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, for Amazon said: “We are creating thousands of new jobs to continue to deliver the experience our customers know and love during the festive season and beyond. We are hiring for all types of roles from software engineers, computer programmers and corporate managers in our R&D centres and head office, to operations managers, engineers, service technicians, HR roles and order fulfilment roles in our fulfilment centres.”
Investing in 3,500 permanent UK jobs this year
Amazon is now planning to create more than 3,500 permanent full-time jobs in the UK this year. This includes 2,500 permanent roles previously announced in January, as well as a further 1,000+ permanent roles announced today. This will bring the total number of full time permanent employees to more than 15,500 by the end of this year, with new recruits working at the company’s UK head office in London; Research and Development (R&D) centres in Cambridge, Edinburgh and London; the customer service centre in Edinburgh; fulfilment centres and delivery stations across the UK; the Fashion Photography Studio in Shoreditch, and to run the Amazon Web Services (AWS) UK Region due to be in place by early 2017.
Amazon has invested more than £4.6bn into the UK economy since 2010, and the news comes just weeks after business networking site LinkedIn ranked Amazon one of the top ten UK companies for both attracting and retaining talent.
Prime Now celebrates first year
Amazon also today announced that Prime Now, its ultra-fast delivery service, is now available to more than 30% of the UK population. Prime Now launched in London in June 2015 and has spread rapidly across the capital and beyond to Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Portsmouth, South Yorkshire and Surrey. Prime Now is a mobile app available to Prime members and offers one-hour delivery on more than 15,000 popular items for £6.99, or delivery at no extra charge within a choice of two-hour, same-day delivery slots between 8am and midnight, seven days a week.
Customers can choose from thousands of items, including essentials such as nappies, coffee, chocolate and fresh milk, as well as other popular items like games consoles, toys, gifts and sports equipment—all via a simple and easy-to-use mobile app.
One of the fastest Amazon Prime Now deliveries to date was Call of Duty: Black Ops III (PS4), which was ordered at 10:06am, sent out from Amazon’s Erdington delivery station in Birmingham and delivered at 10:21am to a postcode in Castle Vale, taking just 15 minutes from click to play.
“One year ago we reinvented fast delivery with the launch of the Prime Now app that makes it easy for customers to discover over 15,000 items for one-hour delivery, or select a same-day delivery slot at no extra charge,” said Gurr. “We’ve delivered on our promise to rollout quickly with the service available to millions of people from Newcastle to Portsmouth, and we’re continuing to invest to bring ultra-fast delivery to more and more of the UK.”
Amazon Summer 2016 Trends Report
Amazon.co.uk also today announced its bi-annual Trends Report, sharing insight on the shopping and entertainment habits across Britain based on sales of items from Amazon.co.uk and the tens of thousands of independent small businesses selling on Amazon Marketplace. The report includes new independent research that finds that Amazon Marketplace sellers support more than 74,000 jobs in the UK. Globally, nearly half of all units sold on Amazon are now sold though Amazon Marketplace sellers. The number of UK sellers generating more than £1m in revenues has increased 20% in the past year, supported by a 33% increase in the number of units exported, with UK exports reaching nearly £1.4bn last year.
Amazon.co.uk’s Summer 2016 Trends Report lifts the lid on Britain’s online shopping habits, including: favourite products and ‘must haves’ of the year so far; the top 10 print and eBooks; the best-selling products in each region of the UK; the most watched programmes on Prime Video; and the most listened to music on Prime Music. The report can be seen in full by visiting www.amazon.co.uk/pr.
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