Amazon celebrates first delivery by drone

An Amazon Prime Air delivery drone is shown in this photo tweeted by CEO Jeff Bezos on Dec. 14, 2016.

Amazon said Wednesday it completed its first delivery by drone, in what the global online giant hopes will be a trend in automated shipments by air.

The delivery to an unnamed customer near Cambridge, England, was announced in a tweet by Amazon founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos.

"First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books. 13 min -- click to delivery," he wrote of the Dec. 7 order.

Amazon, which has been testing drone deliveries in the U.S. and elsewhere, has on several occasions complained that the regulatory environment in the United States for these automated deliveries is more cumbersome.

In its video, Amazon noted that it is working with two customers receiving drone deliveries in the Cambridge area and soon hoped to expand to "dozens" near its warehouse.

Amazon is not the only group working on drone deliveries. Google parent Alphabet has a similar project known as Wing and some reports say U.S. retail behemoth Walmart is also studying drone deliveries.

In the U.S., the first commercial drone delivery was made in July when convenience store 7-Eleven, with drone startup Flirtey, transported a chicken sandwich, hot coffee and donuts to a customer near Reno, Nevada.