A new service allows customers to order almost anything via SMS

“FetchMe is for people who have a need and want to solve it by sending a text,” says Rowan Hand the company’s CEO. “Whether that's a holiday, food, a massage, or even a cleaner if it's one of those Sunday mornings when you can't be bothered.”

Hand didn’t have to look too far outside of the entrepreneurial box for this start-up – only a month after launching, its American counterpart Magic was valued at $40 million pre-money.

Unlike most on-demand services, both FetchMe and Magic work by piggy-backing off other delivery services (there are no FetchMe delivery people running around doing your bidding), rather they take the orders and place them with the existing services (Addison Lee, Shutl, Hassle, Interflora, Amazon, Expedia etc.).  This means customers will have to pay two premiums; the delivery fee and FetchMe handling fee. Essentially that equates to paying for convenience and then paying again for even more convenience.

“With new platforms like the Apple Watch around the corner, ideas focusing on simplicity are more important than ever,” explains Hand. “Would you want to navigate a website or even an app with your watch? Now imagine speaking into iMessages and pressing send. That's what's possible with FetchMe.”

People have come to expect ease and concierge-like immediacy from the services they use and are prepared to pay the premium. In our ‘A Convenient Truth’ Observation we looked at a host of on-demand platforms from Uber to Netflix that operate in the interest of saving valuable time.