As reported by Daily Yomiuri Online, major online retailer Amazon.co.jp, an affiliate of Amazon.com Inc will start a regular home delivery service for food and beverage items free of delivery charges and attracting a 10% discount throughout the country by the end of the year.

Amazon.co.jp will begin delivering only baby food but is expected to expand the service to beverages and processed foods next year.

Amazon expects people who cannot leave their homes to shop for example, the elderly, and parents with small children to use the service and hopes new customers will be attracted to the firm.

Users of the regular delivery service will specify the goods wanted and a delivery interval of between one to six months on the company's Web site.

In regard to foodstuffs, the company is considering shortening the one month minimum delivery interval. The foodstuffs Amazon plans to deliver are heavy and difficult to carry, such as beverages and rice. The service will not include fresh foods.

Amazon.co.jp recently upgraded its delivery service and announced that it has ceased charging delivery fees on products sent from the company's distribution center.

Amazon’s current expansion plans
Amazon is reportedly close to an agreement to buy Quidsi, the US-based parent company of baby supplier Diapers.com. The deal is worth about $540 million, according to reports by Fortune and The Wall Street Journal.

Quidsi also recently launched Soap.com, which sells drugstore products, and BeautyBar.com, which sells make-up, skin and hair products.