Amazon recently expanded its same-day delivery service for perishables. Now you can have local meat, eggs and produce delivered to even more zip codes in the contiguous United States. This is a clever move that leaves customers with a pretty amazing shopping experience. It makes shoppers more likely to include healthier options in their online grocery orders.
Their recently released new shared use mobility service! Now, shoppers in three — soon to be four — cities have access to fresh food delivered on demand, just hours after they order it. This project underscores Amazon’s fierce intent to control the grocery sector. It prioritizes getting food to people the fastest, most convenient way.
To facilitate this expansion, Amazon appointed Jason Buechel, the CEO of Whole Foods Market, to lead its worldwide grocery stores business in January. As COO of Whole Foods, Buechel was central to the grocery chain’s integration into Amazon’s multi-pronged grocery strategy. In June, he laid out plans for Whole Foods to be more fully absorbed into Amazon’s grocery empire. We are looking to this reorganization to improve our processes and improve customer access to the largest possible selection of healthy, fresh food.
Amazon’s $13.7 billion purchase of supermarket chain Whole Foods Market in 2017 has been one of the more prescient moves. By playing on Whole Foods’ reputation for high-quality products, Amazon wants to pull more shoppers onto its grocery platform. The tech giant hopes that by offering same-day delivery service, shoppers will be encouraged to add meat and eggs to their carts while browsing online.
The company has seen tremendous customer response since launching this new approach to delivery.
“Many of these shoppers were first-time Amazon grocery customers who now return to shop twice as often with same-day delivery service compared to those who didn’t purchase fresh food.” – Amazon
This major policy shift seems to be in line with Amazon’s broader tactics of acquiring new customers and getting them to make more frequent purchases.
For Amazon shoppers who don’t have a Prime membership, strong demand for same-day delivery on Amazon comes with a $12.99 charge. Now, this charge doesn’t depend on the size of their purchase. This confusing fee structure is an example of Amazon’s two-fold strategy. It helps justify the cost of Prime membership while offering a really useful service to any customer.