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.

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.

Peapod’s grocery delivery service may be favoured by young American urbanites, but its core market is senior citizens. With an inviting interface and reliable delivery, over-65s are turning to the service for locally-grown food and healthy ready meals. Can its model succeed in other ageing markets?

With the spread of technology, companies are exploring the ways household chores can be made more bearable. Amazon is appealing to grocery-hating mothers everywhere with Amazon Dash – the kitchen assistant intended to do for the shopping list what Kindle did for the e-book.