Amazon Prime Members Now Get Free, Fast Grocery Delivery

10/29/2019

Amazon Prime Members Now Get Free, Fast Grocery Delivery

Amazon wants to make grocery ecommerce as convenient as possible for Prime members, both at Whole Foods and via Amazon Fresh

Members of Amazon Prime can now arrange free grocery delivery in one- and two-hour windows from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market. The available selection includes meat, seafood, produce, snacks and household staples.

“Prime members love the convenience of free grocery delivery on Amazon, which is why we’ve made Amazon Fresh a free benefit of Prime, saving customers $14.99 per month,” noted Amazon VP of Grocery Delivery Stephenie Landry. “Grocery delivery is one of the fastest-growing businesses at Amazon, and we think this will be one of the most-loved Prime benefits.”

Since it anticipates that its latest offering will be popular, Amazon is enabling Prime members currently shopping grocery delivery to continue using these services, while all other Prime members in one of the 2,000-plus cities and towns with grocery delivery can make an online request for an invitation to shop Amazon Fresh or Whole Foods Market delivery.

Amazon’s other recent moves to make ecommerce more convenient for customers include expanding grocery delivery from Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods to more cities, improving delivery speeds, and enabling Prime members to shop their local Whole Foods store via Amazon.com or the Amazon App.

Industry observers see these actions as part of a bold plan to dominate the grocery ecommerce arena.

"The elimination of [Amazon's] Fresh delivery fee is just one of many strategic shifts ahead of the competition to win – especially in the battleground grocery space – with the expansion of national one-day delivery, the removal of the additional Prime Pantry subscription fee and the expansion of Amazon Fresh into more U.S. markets," noted Melissa Burdick, president and co-founder of Pacvue, a Seattle-based ecommerce SaaS platform that enables agencies, brands and sellers to optimize their advertising on Amazon. "The vast selection available from Whole Foods, including their popular private label brand, the elimination of the delivery fee, the quick two-hour delivery and convenience – this is a compelling offering that will gain many new customers, especially in time for the Q4 holiday rush."

Based in Seattle, Amazon has more than 575,000 employees worldwide. Under its Whole Foods Market banner, the company is No. 10 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.