It’s an Amazon world and we’re all just living in it – except when it comes to grocery stores.
Even Amazon admits that its grocery stores and online platforms aren’t getting the results the company expects. That’s why the technology titan is rolling out a huge grocery initiative billed as its largest grocery business overhaul since it bought Whole Foods in 2017.
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Over the next several months, Amazon intends to remodel its physical stores, consolidate digital shopping carts, and bring non-Prime members aboard for foodstuff deliveries.
The move signals a significant shift toward a higher-profile presence for Amazon in the highly-competitive grocery industry, which is valued at about $1.5 trillion in 2023.
“We’re serious about grocery,” said Amazon senior vice president of worldwide physical stores Tony Hoggett, in comments to Bloomberg which first reported the story. “Our plan is on building this really strong grocery relationship with customers over time.”
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Here are three moves Amazon is planning on making in its grocery services restructuring:
Non-Prime members can order online from Amazon Fresh. Previously, only Amazon Prime members, who pay a yearly fee of $139, could order from Amazon Fresh. Now Amazon is making Fresh deliveries available to anyone. The company is testing 12 cities for a Fresh delivery rollout for the masses, although non-Prime members are expected to pay $4 more delivery fees than Prime members pay.
Consolidating online shopping carts. In the past, consumers often had to buy food products from three Amazon web pages – Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, and Amazon.com – depending on the product purchased. Now Amazon says it’s “unifying” its grocery shopping cart experience into a single cart for groceries, which should roll out in late 2023 or in 2024.
Brightening up its physical stores. To better compete with Walmart and Kroger, Amazon aims to spruce up its 40 Fresh stores in the U.S., which were first opened in 2020. The company is adding 1,500 items to its Fresh lineup, and adding amenities like a Krispy Kreme stand at the front of the stores to greet customers.
The Amazon Fresh stores have come under some criticism from shoppers for being too bland and sterile and Amazon aims to fix that. The company is also expected to add hundreds of Fresh stores in the next few years, as Amazon has been busy snapping up real estate across the U.S. to accommodate more physical grocery stores.
Amazon plans to install self-checkout lanes for customers but will keep its popular Just Walk Out non-contact payment system for its Fresh stores.
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