Amazon has been trialing a number of different ways to deliver products from storage lockers to drones as the delivery wars heat up.
Traditional retailers have joined the race for the fastest delivery with the likes of Macy's and Wal-Mart offering quick services.
Amazon, which has prided itself on cheap and quick delivery, also has to fend off challenges from other online stores. Google Express – a service that allows consumers to place an order with a partner retailer and have it delivered on the same day – announced it was expanding into new U.S. cities. Even controversial taxi app Uber has launched a same day grocery service which allows users in Washington DC to shop through the smartphone app.
Analysts said Amazon's decision to launch a one-hour delivery service was driven by pressure.
"Amazon is starting to feel the heat a little, it's becoming a defensive play," Rahul Sharma, founder of Neev Capital, told CNBC by phone.
"For the first two or three years of the web boom Amazon had it to itself. None of the mainstream retailers were responding. Those retailers are beginning to realize that they are going to keep losing sales and have come back with aggressive delivery options."