Amazon is expanding its local services marketplace in 15 cities, offering everything from house painting to central air installation.
The marketplace, called Amazon Home Services, includes 15 million unique offerings across more than 900 professional services. That’s a more than sevenfold increase in the number of services offered since Amazonlaunched the service in March.
The service will now be on offer in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Pheonix, San Diego, San Jose, and Washington, D.C. Amazon also added availability in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle — the cities where it first introduced the service in March.
“Amazon Home Services makes buying a service as easy as buying a product on Amazon,” said Nish Lathia, general manager of Amazon Home Services. “We are excited to expand our offers and availability across the country, providing customers with a quick and simple way to purchase services and service pros with a trusted and familiar marketplace to reach local customers.”
Amazon (AMZN) acts as a middleman for customers and helps them find contractors or other third-party services for home-based needs. It’s a new frontier for Amazon as it goes head-to-head with both review sites, such as Yelp (YELP) and Angie’s List (ANGI), as well as home improvement stores, including Home Depot (HD) and Lowe’s (LOW), that offer similar services.
Customers can request the service via custom or pre-packaged options. For custom services, users can submit a written description with photographs of what they need to receive estimates from local pros. For many projects, like faucet replacement or installing a basketball hoop, there’s a list of pre-packaged options that don’t require sorting through estimates. All services are guaranteed by Amazon.