INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Amazon today is continuing to make good on its Whole Foods acquisition by introducing a new grocery pickup service at select Whole Foods
locations in the United States The service, which is available only to Prime members, will initially be available at stores in Sacramento
and Virginia Beach, but will expand to more cities through the year
Customers will be able to place their orders using Amazon Prime Now app or on the web via PrimeNow.com, then pick up in as little as 30
minutes, Amazon says.
Customers will be able to shop Whole Foods& fresh and organic produce, bakery, dairy, meat and seafood, floral, and
other staples, then pick up their order in an hour from their local Whole Foods Market.
This is the same selection of the thousands of items
that customers can order for delivery
The majority of in-store items are available across both pickup and delivery services, we understand.
For orders over $35, the grocery
Under $35, the pickup fee is $1.99.
If customers want to get their order more quickly, they have the option of pay an additional $4.99 for a
30-minute pickup instead.
Once they arrive at the store, customers will park in a designated spot and a Prime Now shopper will then bring
the groceries out to their car & the customer can stay in their vehicle
The Prime Now app also has a feature that lets the customer alert the store they&re on the way, so the order will be sure to be ready when
they arrive.
The pickup service, like Whole Foods delivery, will be offered from 8 AM to 10 PM.
Pickup from Whole Foods Market is a perfect
option for customers who want to grab healthy and organic groceries at their convenience, all without leaving their car,& said Stephenie
Landry, Worldwide Vice President of Prime Now, AmazonFresh and Amazon Restaurants, in a statement about the launch.
Amazon already offers
grocery delivery from Whole Foods Market across dozens of cities, but this is the first time it has offered grocery pickup.
The move is a
direct challenge to rival Walmart, which has been steadily rolling out a grocery pickup service of its own for years
Today, that service is available at 1,800 Walmart locations in the United States , with plans to reach 2,200 by year-end, Walmart confirmed
to us.
Walmart grocery pickup service offers shoppers the same general value proposition as Amazon&s
That is, you can shop online for your groceries, drive to the store, then have someone bring them out to you
Walmart service has been especially well-received by parents with small children, who don''t like the hassle of bringing them into the store
for grocery shopping, as well as by others who just don''t have a lot of time to grocery shop.
The service has made sense for Walmart more
value-minded customers, too
With grocery pickup, shopping can be more affordable because there not the overhead of running a delivery service & as with Instacart and
Target-owned Shipt, where it costlier to use the app than to shop yourself
(Plus, you have to tip).
In addition to not marking up the grocery prices, Amazon notes that Prime members can also receive the same 10
percent off sale items they would otherwise get if shopping in the store, and they&ll enjoy the deeper discounts on select items
These savings are available in-store, or when using grocery pickup or delivery.
Alongside this launch, Amazon is also adding a new way to
use Alexa for voice shopping from Whole Foods.
Prime members in supported regions can add Whole Foods Market groceries to their Prime Now
cart with simple voice commands
For example: &Alexa, add eggs to my Whole Foods cart.
Alexa will pick the best available match for your request, considering users& order
history and purchasing behavior of other customers when it adds an item to the cart.
But customers will review these cart additions when
they go online later to complete their order and checkout
It easy to swap the item in the cart for another one at that time.
A report released this week by The Information claimed that few Alexa
owners were actively voice shopping using their Alexa devices, but this data seemed to overlook Alexa list-making capabilities
That is, people are more likely using Alexa to add items to an in-app shopping list, which they later revisit when they&re back on their
phone or computer to complete the purchase
This behavior feels more natural, as shopping often requires a visual confirmation of the product being ordered and its current pricing.
It
not surprising that people aren''t using Alexa to transact directly through the voice platform, but it is a bit far-fetched to claim that
Alexa isn''t providing a lift to Amazon bottom line
In addition to list-making, Alexa also helps to upsell customers on Prime memberships, and its other subscription services, including Prime
Music Unlimited, the number 3 music service behind Spotify and Apple Music, as well as Audible subscriptions.
Plus, Alexa controls the smart
home, and Amazon has acquired smart home device makers and sells its own smart home hardware
It also offers installation services
Those sales, like music or audiobooks, also aren''t directly flowing through Alexa, but Alexa existence helps to boost them.
Amazon new
Whole Foods/Alexa integration will also capitalize on the more common behavior of list-making, rather than direct check out and
purchase.
Amazon declined to say which other markets would receive Whole Foods grocery pickup next, how many it expects to support by
year-end, or what factors it considering as to where to roll out next
It would only say that it will reach more customers this year.
However, as the grocery pickup and delivery services expand, customers can
find out if it arrived in their area by saying, &Alexa, shop Whole Foods Market.
