KEY POINTS
- Amazon stated Wednesday that it’s introducing free, one-hour grocery pickup for Prime members at Whole Foods areas across the country.
- Curbside pickup has taken off throughout the coronavirus pandemic amidst a total rise in need for online grocery services.
Amazon is making it much faster for Prime members to place Whole Foods orders online and choose them up at the store, in the current indication of a growing demand for curbside pickup services.
Amazon is launching complimentary, one-hour grocery pickup for Prime members at all Whole Foods stores in the U.S., the company revealed Wednesday. To get approved for a one-hour pickup, grocery orders need to total $35 or more. There are currently 487 Whole Foods stores in the U.S.
The function presents a brand-new perk for Prime members, who pay $119 per year free of charge shipping and access to other services like Prime Video and Music, as well as free Amazon Fresh grocery shipment. Before Wednesday’s statement, Prime members could get Whole Foods orders only at select stores.
Amazon started ramping up pickup choices at Whole Foods stores in April at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, expanding the service to more than 150 stores, up from about 80 locations.
Curbside pickup increasing
Options to buy goods online and select them up in individual, like curbside pickup and in-store pickup, have gained traction during the coronavirus crisis, along with a general spike in online grocery services. Buyers are progressively turning to these services as they try to find methods to minimize their time spent in stores.
These services were on the rise long before the pandemic, nevertheless. While Amazon was focusing more on grocery shipment, competitors Walmart and Target have strongly broadened curbside pickup over a previous couple of years. Now, it’s successfully ended up being table stake for merchants, stated Steve Caine, a retail expert, and partner at Bain & & Co. The service offers consumers more flexible pickup windows, and it’s more cost-efficient for sellers since they no longer have to handle the costly last-mile delivery process.
“Amazon is late to the game,” stated Caine. “They’re attempting to catch up here with those who have been at this for a while.”
Whole Foods, which Amazon bought in 2017, has a smaller sized nationwide footprint and does not offer the exact same quantity of density in a local market as a regional grocer or traditional big-box seller like Walmart, Caine said. While Whole Foods has less than 500 shops in the U.S., Walmart has at least 4,700 shops.
By using curbside pickup as a perk for Prime customers, Amazon is betting that interest will rollover long after the pandemic. Early indications are indicating that it could, with about 68% of U.S. buyers stating they plan to utilize curbside pickup services at stores more in the future, according to a current research study performed by GlobalData Retail.
“While Covid-19 sped up the adoption of online grocery services and prompted new customers to attempt services like grocery pickup, it’s clear that this offering will become a more irreversible solution for lots of customers,” Amazon said in Wednesday’s post.