We all know the feeling - you’ve just ordered something online, and then comes the agonising wait for it to be delivered. Aiming to speed up that process, Whole Foods has partnered with start-up Instacart to offer one-hour grocery deliveries at selected stores in Boston and Austin.

Walgreens has partnered with task outsourcing app TaskRabbit to let cold sufferers order medicine from their sickbeds. Though task outsourcing apps are often accused of reinforcing social divides, this provides a more ethical application.

Sears has announced a service that lets people place orders via mobile and receive them without even leaving their car. Sears claim that In-Vehicle pick-up programme is a first, and pushes online ordering to new territory.

Prime Air is Amazon's ambitiously futuristic delivery service currently in testing. If all goes to plan, by 2015 customers ordering items up to 2.2kg will be able to receive their purchases within 30 minutes of ordering them.