Amazon rolls out fresh food service for paying, east London members
US online retailer Amazon has today launched its fresh food delivery service in central and east London.
The service is further restricted to Amazon’s Prime members, who pay a £79 per year fee for various TV and music streaming services and free delivery on certain items.
Amazon, after taking significant market share from many of the UK’s high street stores, is now gunning for a slice of the embattled grocery market. The UK’s supermarkets are currently locked in a price war that has knocked billions of pounds from their combined market value over recent years.
Tesco, the UK’s largest supermarket by market share, and dedicated online grocer Ocado are thought to be under the most threat from Amazon’s fresh food offering.
“Ocado is most at risk here, though Tesco – with a near 50 per cent online market share – will be one to watch,” Bryan Roberts, retail analyst at TCC Global, told City A.M. “We all knew this was coming, it was a case of ‘when’, not ‘if’,”
AmazonFresh, already available in eight US cities, will charge £6.99 for a month of orders over £40.