Amazon raises its grocery game as it moves to capture market share
Amazon Fresh deliveries will be available free but there is a minimum spend for a two-hour delivery slot.
Tuesday 28 July 2020 11:07, UK
Amazon Prime customers will be able to get groceries delivered to their homes for free from today, so long as they live in or around London.
The tech giant will automatically offer its Amazon Fresh service to Prime subscribers across 300 postcodes from Tuesday, giving them free two-hour food delivery slots on orders of more than £40.
It comes after figures showed online shopping now accounts for £3 of every £10 spent in the UK - up from £2 before the coronavirus outbreak.
With supermarkets providing a lifeline to the vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic and people continuing to buy their food online, Amazon appears to be cashing in on the new trend.
But it faces an uphill battle to break the dominance of the traditional players such as Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons and Ocado.
The latter is beginning a new partnership with M&S after ending its association with the John Lewis Partnership's Waitrose - another competitor to consider.
While thousands of grocery items are available, Fresh customers are tipped to face a more limited offering though it is clear that Amazon has lofty ambitions.
A spokesman said the free Fresh scheme could be extended to the rest of the country by the end of the year.
Russell Jones, country manager at Amazon Fresh UK, said sales have been "particularly strong" following the lockdown, but stressed that the latest move had been in the pipeline long before the virus outbreak.
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Mr Jones said: "Prime members love the convenience of grocery delivery at home, which is why we've made Amazon Fresh a free benefit of Prime.
"Grocery delivery is one of the fastest growing businesses at Amazon and we think this will be one of the most-loved Prime benefits in the UK."
Amazon Prime subscribers get next-day delivery on millions of products and unlimited access to its TV and film collection through its Prime Video streaming service.